| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: they were less than a hundred yards apart, while the bed of the
ravine was blocked by boulders, great and small, so that the little
stream, which was now diminished to the proportions of a brook, had
to come down where and how it could. The forms of life grew
stranger. Pure plants and pure animals disappeared by degrees, and
their place was filled by singular creatures that seemed to partake
of both characters. They had limbs, faces, will, and intelligence,
but they remained for the greater part of their time rooted in the
ground by preference, and they fed only on soil and air. Maskull saw
no sexual organs and failed to understand how the young came into
existence.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries
are made. No, there was nothing but land--slightly undulating,
I knew, because often our wheels ground against the brake as we
went down into a hollow and lurched up again on the other side.
I had the feeling that the world was left behind, that we had
got over the edge of it, and were outside man's jurisdiction.
I had never before looked up at the sky when there was not a
familiar mountain ridge against it. But this was the complete
dome of heaven, all there was of it. I did not believe that my
dead father and mother were watching me from up there; they would
still be looking for me at the sheep-fold down by the creek,
My Antonia |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: much-loved member of her husband's family. I asked her one day why
the boys never appeared at luncheon.
"Oh, they come when Alan is away," she answered; "but they seem to
annoy him so much that George thinks it is better to keep them out
of sight when he is here. It is very tiresome. I know that it is
the fashion to say that George has got the temper of the family;
but I assure you that Alan's nervous moods and fancies are much
more difficult to live with."
That was on the morning--a Friday it was--of the last day which we
were to spend alone. The guests were to arrive soon after tea; and
I think that with the knowledge of their approach Alan and I
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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 Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: Abased with every wretchedness, they yet
Live, and where'er the wretches come, they yet
Make the ancestral sacrifices there,
Butcher the black sheep, and to gods below
Offer the honours, and in bitter case
Turn much more keenly to religion.
Wherefore, it's surer testing of a man
In doubtful perils- mark him as he is
Amid adversities; for then alone
Are the true voices conjured from his breast,
The mask off-stripped, reality behind.
Of The Nature of Things |
