| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: clear day, with one line of light, definite as the cut of a sword.
The Provencal threw his arms round the trunk of one of the palm trees,
as though it were the body of a friend, and then, in the shelter of
the thin, straight shadow that the palm cast upon the granite, he
wept. Then sitting down he remained as he was, contemplating with
profound sadness the implacable scene, which was all he had to look
upon. He cried aloud, to measure the solitude. His voice, lost in the
hollows of the hill, sounded faintly, and aroused no echo--the echo
was in his own heart. The Provencal was twenty-two years old:--he
loaded his carbine.
"There'll be time enough," he said to himself, laying on the ground
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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 Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: oaths, the discussion of business, and the casual talk of the
office; all which sounds and circumstances seemed but
indistinctly to impress his senses, and hardly to make their way
into his inner sphere of contemplation. His countenance, in this
repose, was mild and kindly. If his notice was sought, an
expression of courtesy and interest gleamed out upon his
features, proving that there was light within him, and that it
was only the outward medium of the intellectual lamp that
obstructed the rays in their passage. The closer you penetrated
to the substance of his mind, the sounder it appeared. When no
longer called upon to speak or listen -- either of which
The Scarlet Letter |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: changeable power: the spirit enjoys therein its craftiness and
its variety of disguises, it enjoys also its feeling of security
therein--it is precisely by its Protean arts that it is best
protected and concealed!--COUNTER TO this propensity for
appearance, for simplification, for a disguise, for a cloak, in
short, for an outside--for every outside is a cloak--there
operates the sublime tendency of the man of knowledge, which
takes, and INSISTS on taking things profoundly, variously, and
thoroughly; as a kind of cruelty of the intellectual conscience
and taste, which every courageous thinker will acknowledge in
himself, provided, as it ought to be, that he has sharpened and
Beyond Good and Evil |
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 Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa: forest, where I feel about for dry sticks for my fire."
"Grandfather, I wish I lived in such sure luxury! I would
lean back against a tent pole, and with crossed feet I would smoke
sweet willow bark the rest of my days," sighed Manstin.
"My grandchild, your eyes are your luxury! you would be
unhappy without them!" the old man replied.
"Grandfather, I would give you my two eyes for your place!"
cried Manstin.
"How! you have said it. Arise. Take out your eyes and give
them to me. Henceforth you are at home here in my stead."
At once Manstin took out both his eyes and the old man put
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