Today's Stichomancy for Eva Mendes
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: gold rewarded his washing, he stopped and built a fire of dry twigs. Into this
he thrust the gold-pan and burned it till it was blue-black. He held up the
pan and examined it critically. Then he nodded approbation. Against such a
color-background he could defy the tiniest yellow speck to elude him.
Still moving down the stream, he panned again. A single speck was his reward.
A third pan contained no gold at all. Not satisfied with this, he panned three
times again, taking his shovels of dirt within a foot of one another. Each pan
proved empty of gold, and the fact, instead of discouraging him, seemed to
give him satisfaction. His elation increased with each barren washing, until
he arose, exclaiming jubilantly:
"If it ain't the real thing, may God knock off my head with sour apples!"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: all the great painters. On another, she was coyly turning her head as
she finished a roulade, and seemed to be listening to herself.
Sarrasine drew his mistress in all poses: he drew her unveiled,
seated, standing, reclining, chaste, and amorous--interpreting, thanks
to the delirious activity of his pencil, all the fanciful ideas which
beset our imagination when our thoughts are completely engrossed by a
mistress. But his frantic thoughts outran his pencil. He met La
Zambinella, spoke to her, entreated her, exhausted a thousand years of
life and happiness with her, placing her in all imaginable situations,
trying the future with her, so to speak. The next day he sent his
servant to hire a box near the stage for the whole season. Then, like
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: incense, make them flush with pictures and flowers. The cost, in
the common phrase, of keeping them up fell wholly on the generous
heart.
CHAPTER II.
HE had this year, on the eve of his anniversary, as happened, an
emotion not unconnected with that range of feeling. Walking home
at the close of a busy day he was arrested in the London street by
the particular effect of a shop-front that lighted the dull brown
air with its mercenary grin and before which several persons were
gathered. It was the window of a jeweller whose diamonds and
sapphires seemed to laugh, in flashes like high notes of sound,
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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 Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: XII
DORLANGE TO MARIE-GASTON
Paris, May, 1839.
On my return this evening from the Estorades, on whom I had paid my
parting call, I found your letter, my dear friend, in which you
announce your coming arrival. I shall await you to-morrow during the
day, but in the evening I must, without further delay, start for
Arcis-sur-Aube, where, in the course of the next week my political
matters will come to a head. What particular hold I may have on that
town, which, as it appears, I have the ambition to represent, and on
what co-operation and assistance I may rely,--in a word, /who/ is
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