Today's Stichomancy for Denise Richards

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum:

carelessly tipped over the other copper vessel with his heel and its contents spilled on the sands and were lost to the last drop.

The Su-dic stopped short and looked at the overturned vessel with a rueful countenance.

"That's too bad -- too bad!" he exclaimed sorrowfully. "I've lost all the poison I had to kill the fishes with, and I can't make any more because only my wife knew the secret of it, and she is now a foolish Pig and has forgotten all her magic."

"Very well," said the Diamond Swan scornfully, as she

Glinda of Oz

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon:

Zeus and Cheiron were brethren, sons of the same father but of different mothers--Zeus of Rhea, and Cheiron of the nymph Nais;[5] and so it is that, though older than all of them, he died not before he had taught the youngest--to wit, the boy Achilles.[6]

[1] Or, "This thing is the invention of no mortal man, but of Apollo and Artemis, to whom belong hunting and dogs." For the style of exordium L. Dind. cf (Ps.) Dion. "Art. rhet." ad in.; Galen, "Isagog." ad in.; Alex. Aphrodis. "Probl." 2 proem.

[2] The wisest and "justest of all the centaurs," Hom. "Il." xi. 831. See Kingsley, "The Heroes," p. 84.

[3] Or, "the discipline of the hunting field and other noble lore."

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert:

Ammonius, pupil of Philon, the Platonist, pronounced them stupid, and told the Greeks that he laughed at their oracles.

Marcellus and Jacob were seated side by side. Marcellus described the happiness he had felt under the baptism of Mithra, and Jacob made him promise to become a follower of Jesus.

The wines of the palm and the tamarisk, those of Safed and of Byblos, ran from the amphoras into the crateras, from the crateras into the cups, and from the cups down the guests' throats. Every one talked, all hearts expanding under the good cheer. Jacim, although a Jew, did not hesitate to express his admiration of the planets. A merchant from Aphaka amazed the nomads with his description of the marvels in the

Herodias

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 House of Dust by Conrad Aiken:

And drop the masque of grief for one of passion. Forward we move to meet, half hesitating, We drown in each others' eyes, we laugh, we talk, Looking now here, now there, faintly pretending We do not hear the powerful pulsing prelude Roaring beneath our words . . . The time approaches. We lean unbalanced. The mute last glance between us, Profoundly searching, opening, asking, yielding, Is steadily met: our two lives draw together . . . . . . .'What are you thinking of?'. . . .My first wife's voice Scattered these ghosts. 'Oh nothing--nothing much--