Today's Stichomancy for Dick Cheney

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mountains by Stewart Edward White:

big pine-tree. So by that you can see how tremendous those cliffs really are."

And our guest looks incredulously at the speck.

There was snow, of course, lying cold in the hot sun. This phenomenon always impresses a man when first he sees it. Often I have ridden with my sleeves rolled up and the front of my shirt open, over drifts whose edges, even, dripped no water. The direct rays seem to have absolutely no effect. A scientific explanation I have never heard expressed; but I suppose the cold nights freeze the drifts and pack

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Flame and Shadow by Sara Teasdale:

Fitting tunes to everything, Loving life for its own sake.

Spring Torrents

Will it always be like this until I am dead, Every spring must I bear it all again With the first red haze of the budding maple boughs, And the first sweet-smelling rain?

Oh I am like a rock in the rising river Where the flooded water breaks with a low call -- Like a rock that knows the cry of the waters

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

Numbers 14: 8 If the LORD delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it unto us--a land which floweth with milk and honey.

Numbers 14: 9 Only rebel not against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us; their defence is removed from over them, and the LORD is with us; fear them not.'

Numbers 14: 10 But all the congregation bade stone them with stones, when the glory of the LORD appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the children of Israel.

Numbers 14: 11 And the LORD said unto Moses: 'How long will this people despise Me? and how long will they not believe in Me, for all the signs which I have wrought among them?

Numbers 14: 12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and destroy them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they.'

Numbers 14: 13 And Moses said unto the LORD: 'When the Egyptians shall hear--for Thou broughtest up this people in Thy might from among them--

Numbers 14: 14 they will say to the inhabitants of this land, who have heard that Thou LORD art in the midst of this people; inasmuch as Thou LORD art seen face to face, and Thy cloud standeth over them, and Thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night;

Numbers 14: 15 now if Thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of Thee will speak, saying:

Numbers 14: 16 Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which He swore unto them, therefore He hath slain them in the wilderness.

Numbers 14: 17 And now, I pray Thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as Thou hast spoken, saying:

The Tanach

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 La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac:

birds and cats, polecats, rats, and mice, free to scamper round, and fight, and eat each other. An invisible hand has written over it all: 'Mystery.'

"If, prompted by curiosity, you go to look at this house from the street, you will see a large gate, with a round-arched top; the children have made many holes in it. I learned later that this door had been blocked for ten years. Through these irregular breaches you will see that the side towards the courtyard is in perfect harmony with the side towards the garden. The same ruin prevails. Tufts of weeds outline the paving-stones; the walls are scored by enormous cracks, and the blackened coping is laced with a thousand festoons of

La Grande Breteche