| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Main Street by Sinclair Lewis: and all that it signified, but she had had no destination. She
had one now. That destination was not Erik Valborg and the
love of Erik. She continued to assure herself that she wasn't
in love with him but merely "fond of him, and interested in
his success." Yet in him she had discovered both her need of
youth and the fact that youth would welcome her. It was not
Erik to whom she must escape, but universal and joyous youth,
in class-rooms, in studios, in offices, in meetings to protest
against Things in General. . . . But universal and joyous
youth rather resembled Erik.
All week she thought of things she wished to say to him.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: trivial and of no import. And so he had begun by vivisecting himself,
as he had ended by vivisecting others. Human life--that appeared
to him the one thing worth investigating. Compared to it there
was nothing else of any value. It was true that as one watched
life in its curious crucible of pain and pleasure, one could
not wear over one's face a mask of glass, nor keep the sulphurous
fumes from troubling the brain and making the imagination turbid
with monstrous fancies and misshapen dreams. There were poisons
so subtle that to know their properties one had to sicken of them.
There were maladies so strange that one had to pass through them
if one sought to understand their nature. And, yet, what a great
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Koran: (saying), that I have come to you, with a sign from God, namely,
that I will create for you out of clay as though it were the form of a
bird, and I will blow thereon and it shall become a bird by God's
permission; and I will heal the blind from birth, and lepers; and I
will bring the dead to life by God's permission; and I will tell you
what you eat and what ye store up in your houses. Verily, in that is a
sign for you if ye be believers. And I will confirm what is before you
of the law, and will surely make lawful for you some of that which was
prohibited from you. I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, so
fear God and follow me, for God is my Lord, and your Lord, so
worship Him:- this is the right path.'
The Koran |
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 Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: into Saint-Pelagie, and I shall have to trot down there after you. Oh!
if one only knew what one puts one's foot into when we love a man, on
my word of honor we would let you alone to take care of yourselves,
you men! However, if you are going away to-morrow we won't talk of
disagreeable things,--that would be silly."
The coach stopped before a pretty house, newly built in the Rue
d'Artois, where Gaudissart and Jenny climbed to the fourth story. This
was the abode of Mademoiselle Jenny Courand, commonly reported to be
privately married to the illustrious Gaudissart, a rumor which that
individual did not deny. To maintain her supremacy, Jenny kept him to
the performance of innumerable small attentions, and threatened
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