| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: thought before he knew how to proceed in order to be able to
hypothecate his manly vigour. He arrived with the appetite of a hungry
monk, and to obtain its satisfaction he was just the man to stab two
monks and sell his bit of the true cross, which were wrong.
"Hulloa! friend," said he to Philippe, calling him towards him. The
poor Tourainian, more dead than alive, and expecting the devil was
about to interfere seriously with his arrangements, rose and said,
"What is it?" to the redoubtable cardinal.
He taking him by the arm led him to the staircase, looked him in the
white of the eye and said without any nonsense--"Ventredieu! You are a
nice little fellow, and I should not like to have to let your master
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King James Bible: uncovereth his father's skirt. And all the people shall say, Amen.
DEU 27:21 Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast. And all the
people shall say, Amen.
DEU 27:22 Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his
father, or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say,
Amen.
DEU 27:23 Cursed be he that lieth with his mother in law. And all the
people shall say, Amen.
DEU 27:24 Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbour secretly. And all the
people shall say, Amen.
DEU 27:25 Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person.
King James Bible |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: And one of the ladies passing by looked over to the stone bench
where Bessie Bell sat with her hands folded on her blue checked
apron, and where the lady had seated herself just as Sister Helen
Vincula had sat before she went across the long bridge.
And the lady said, as she passed by and looked: ``Striking
likeness.''
Another lady with her said: ``Wonderful!''
And another one with them said: ``Impossible! But strange indeed--''
Bessie Bell did not notice what the ladies said, but because they
looked so attentively to where she sat on the stone bench her
attention was turned the way their eyes turned as they talked in low
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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 Summer by Edith Wharton: as of someone hateful and obstructive, but whom she
could outwit and dominate when she chose to make the
effort. Only once, on the day of the Old Home Week
celebration, while the stray fragments of his address
drifted across her troubled mind, had she caught a
glimpse of another being, a being so different from the
dull-witted enemy with whom she had supposed herself to
be living that even through the burning mist of her own
dreams he had stood out with startling distinctness.
For a moment, then, what he said--and something in his
way of saying it--had made her see why he had always
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