| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: us go on our way, for surely she hath shown me all, the
lady Circe."
'So spake I, and their lordly soul consented thereto. Yet
even thence I led not my company safe away. There was one,
Elpenor, the youngest of us all, not very valiant in war
neither steadfast in mind. He was lying apart from the rest
of my men on the housetop of Circe's sacred dwelling, very
fain of the cool air, as one heavy with wine. Now when he
heard the noise of the voices and of the feet of my fellows
as they moved to and fro, he leaped up of a sudden and
minded him not to descend again by the way of the tall
The Odyssey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: She walked quickly across the park, not really in the thrill of the
assignation, but with a certain anger and rebellion burning in her
heart. It was not the right sort of heart to take to a love-meeting.
But · LA GUERRE COMME · LA GUERRE!
Chapter 14
When she got near the park-gate, she heard the click of the latch. He
was there, then, in the darkness of the wood, and had seen her!
'You are good and early,' he said out of the dark. 'Was everything all
right?'
'Perfectly easy.'
He shut the gate quietly after her, and made a spot of light on the
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Merry Men by Robert Louis Stevenson: think always the more of you; I could not think to be happy or
hearty in my life without you: you are the apple of my eye.' Still
she looked away, and said never a word; but I thought I saw that
her hands shook. 'Mary,' I cried in fear, 'do ye no like me?'
'O, Charlie man,' she said, 'is this a time to speak of it? Let me
be, a while; let me be the way I am; it'll not be you that loses by
the waiting!'
I made out by her voice that she was nearly weeping, and this put
me out of any thought but to compose her. 'Mary Ellen,' I said,
'say no more; I did not come to trouble you: your way shall be
mine, and your time too; and you have told me all I wanted. Only
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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 The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: honest reason], but have acted like antichristian, tyrannical,
desperate scoundrels [have performed the work of antichrist,
of tyrants and the worst knaves], and have thereby caused all
kinds of horrible, abominable, innumerable sins of unchastity
[depraved lusts], in which they still wallow. Now, as little
as we or they have been given the power to make a woman out of
a man or a man out of a woman, or to nullify either sex, so
little have they had the power to [sunder and] separate such
creatures of God, or to forbid them from living [and
cohabiting] honestly in marriage with one another. Therefore
we are unwilling to assent to their abominable celibacy, nor
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