| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: can I give the least account how I was kept alive, other than
that, as I have been told, some relation of my mother's took
me away for a while as a nurse, but at whose expense, or by
whose direction, I know nothing at all of it.
The first account that I can recollect, or could ever learn of
myself, was that I had wandered among a crew of those people
they call gypsies, or Egyptians; but I believe it was but a very
little while that I had been among them, for I had not had my
skin discoloured or blackened, as they do very young to all the
children they carry about with them; nor can I tell how I came
among them, or how I got from them.
Moll Flanders |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: was indeed not wholly regular.
Meanwhile, I had opened Miss Grant's, and could not withhold an
exclamation.
"Catriona," I cried, forgetting, the first time since her father was
arrived, to address her by a handle, "I am come into my kingdom fairly,
I am the laird of Shaws indeed - my uncle is dead at last."
She clapped her hands together leaping from her seat. The next moment
it must have come over both of us at once what little cause of joy was
left to either, and we stood opposite, staring on each other sadly.
But James showed himself a ready hypocrite. "My daughter," says he,
"is this how my cousin learned you to behave? Mr. David has lost a new
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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 Animal Farm by George Orwell: his orders quickly, and in a couple of minutes every animal was at his
post.
As the human beings approached the farm buildings, Snowball launched his
first attack. All the pigeons, to the number of thirty-five, flew to and
fro over the men's heads and muted upon them from mid-air; and while the
men were dealing with this, the geese, who had been hiding behind the
hedge, rushed out and pecked viciously at the calves of their legs.
However, this was only a light skirmishing manoeuvre, intended to create a
little disorder, and the men easily drove the geese off with their sticks.
Snowball now launched his second line of attack. Muriel, Benjamin, and all
the sheep, with Snowball at the head of them, rushed forward and prodded
Animal Farm |
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 Tanach: 2_Chronicles 33: 23 And he humbled not himself before the LORD, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but this same Amon became guilty more and more.
2_Chronicles 33: 24 And his servants conspired against him, and put him to death in his own house.
2_Chronicles 33: 25 But the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.
2_Chronicles 34: 1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem.
2_Chronicles 34: 2 And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.
2_Chronicles 34: 3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the Asherim, and the graven images, and the molten images.
2_Chronicles 34: 4 And they broke down the altars of the Baalim in his presence; and the sun-images, that were on high above them, he hewed down; and the Asherim, and the graven images, and the molten images, he broke in pieces, and made dust of them, and strewed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them.
2_Chronicles 34: 5 And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem.
2_Chronicles 34: 6 And so did he in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their axes round about.
The Tanach |
