| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Tanach: Exodus 26: 34 And thou shalt put the ark-cover upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place.
Exodus 26: 35 And thou shalt set the table without the veil, and the candlestick over against the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south; and thou shalt put the table on the north side.
Exodus 26: 36 And thou shalt make a screen for the door of the Tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, the work of the weaver in colours.
Exodus 26: 37 And thou shalt make for the screen five pillars of acacia, and overlay them with gold; their hooks shall be of gold; and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them.
Exodus 27: 1 And thou shalt make the altar of acacia-wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be four-square; and the height thereof shall be three cubits.
Exodus 27: 2 And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof; the horns thereof shall be of one piece with it; and thou shalt overlay it with brass.
Exodus 27: 3 And thou shalt make its pots to take away its ashes, and its shovels, and its basins, and its flesh-hooks, and its fire-pans; all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass.
Exodus 27: 4 And thou shalt make for it a grating of network of brass; and upon the net shalt thou make four brazen rings in the four corners thereof.
Exodus 27: 5 And thou shalt put it under the ledge round the altar beneath, that the net may reach halfway up the altar.
Exodus 27: 6 And thou shalt make staves for the altar, staves of acacia-wood, and overlay them with brass.
The Tanach |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: sickness, going at the first jump to the depth of her misery, seeing
that all is flame between the first coveting and the last desire, and
she knew not how she then learned that by the eyes can flow in a
subtle essence, causing such powerful corrosions in all the veins of
the body, recesses of the heart, nerves of the members, roots of the
hair, perspiration of the substance, limbo of the brain, orifices of
the epidermis, windings of the pluck, tubes of the hypochondriac and
other channels which in her was suddenly dilated, heated, tickled,
envenomed, clawed, harrowed, and disturbed, as if she had a basketful
of needles in her inside. This was a maiden's desire, a well-
conditioned desire, which troubled her sight to such a degree that she
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare: Make answer Muse: wilt thou not haply say,
'Truth needs no colour, with his colour fix'd;
Beauty no pencil, beauty's truth to lay;
But best is best, if never intermix'd'?
Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb?
Excuse not silence so, for't lies in thee
To make him much outlive a gilded tomb
And to be prais'd of ages yet to be.
Then do thy office, Muse; I teach thee how
To make him seem long hence as he shows now.
CII
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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 Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: out of it in a very short time through a single artery that has been cut,
even although this had been closely tied in the immediate neighborhood of
the heart and cut between the heart and the ligature, so as to prevent the
supposition that the blood flowing out of it could come from any other
quarter than the heart.
But there are many other circumstances which evince that what I have
alleged is the true cause of the motion of the blood: thus, in the first
place, the difference that is observed between the blood which flows from
the veins, and that from the arteries, can only arise from this, that
being rarefied, and, as it were, distilled by passing through the heart,
it is thinner, and more vivid, and warmer immediately after leaving the
Reason Discourse |
