| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: speaking to exalt himself above all that is called God as Paul
says, 2 Thess. 2, 4. Even the Turks or the Tartars, great
enemies of Christians as they are, do not do this, but they
allow whoever wishes to believe in Christ, and take bodily
tribute and obedience from Christians.
The Pope, however, prohibits this faith, saying that to be
saved a person must obey him. This we are unwilling to do,
even though on this account we must die in God s name. This
all proceeds from the fact that the Pope has wished to be
called the supreme head of the Christian Church by divine
right. Accordingly he had to make himself equal and superior
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Persuasion by Jane Austen: and those freckles. Freckles do not disgust me so very much
as they do him. I have known a face not materially disfigured by a few,
but he abominates them. You must have heard him notice
Mrs Clay's freckles."
"There is hardly any personal defect," replied Anne,
"which an agreeable manner might not gradually reconcile one to."
"I think very differently," answered Elizabeth, shortly;
"an agreeable manner may set off handsome features, but can never
alter plain ones. However, at any rate, as I have a great deal more
at stake on this point than anybody else can have, I think it
rather unnecessary in you to be advising me."
Persuasion |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: God.
Here, too, there was no faith nor Christ, and the virtue of
the absolution was not declared to him, but upon his
enumeration of sins and his self-abasement depended his
consolation. What torture, rascality, and idolatry such
confession has produced is more than can be related.
As to satisfaction, this is by far the most involved
[perplexing] part of all. For no man could know how much to
render for a single sin, not to say how much for all. Here
they have resorted to the device of imposing a small
satisfaction, which could indeed be rendered, as five
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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 Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: danger or an access of selfish greed you deserted your
brother tribesman or took a mean advantage of him, you
'sinned' against him; and naturally you expiated the
sin by an equivalent sacrifice of some kind made to the
one you had wronged. Such an idea and such a practice
were the very foundation of social life and human morality,
and must have sprung up as soon as ever, in the course
of evolution, man became CAPABLE of differentiating himself
from his fellows and regarding his own conduct as that of
a 'separate self.' It was in the very conception of a
separate self that 'sin' and disunity first began; and it
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
