| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: There is also held at Seville Cathedral and before the
High Altar every year, the very curious Dance of the Seises
(sixes), performed now by 16 instead of (as of old) by 12
boys, quaintly dressed. It seems to be a survival of
some very ancient ritual, probably astronomical, in which
the two sets of six represent the signs of the Zodiac, and
is celebrated during the festivals of Corpus Christi, the
Immaculate Conception, and the Carnival.
Numerous instances might of course be adduced of how
a Church aspiring to be a real Church of Humanity might
adopt and re-create the rituals of the past in the light of
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: Fourierism has killed him. You have just seen, cousin, one of the
effects of ambition upon artists. Too often, in Paris, from a desire
to reach more rapidly than by natural ways the celebrity which to them
is fortune, artists borrow the wings of circumstance, they think they
make themselves of more importance as men of a specialty, the
supporters of some 'system'; and they fancy they can transform a
clique into the public. One is a republican, another Saint-Simonian;
this one aristocrat, that one Catholic, others juste-milieu, middle
ages, or German, as they choose for their purpose. Now, though
opinions do not give talent, they always spoil what talent there is;
and the poor fellow whom you have just seen is a proof thereof. An
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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 Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: night, mild, starry, only when they got out of the cab and started to walk
down the Old Wharf that jutted out into the harbour, a faint wind blowing
off the water ruffled under Fenella's hat, and she put up her hand to keep
it on. It was dark on the Old Wharf, very dark; the wool sheds, the cattle
trucks, the cranes standing up so high, the little squat railway engine,
all seemed carved out of solid darkness. Here and there on a rounded wood-
pile, that was like the stalk of a huge black mushroom, there hung a
lantern, but it seemed afraid to unfurl its timid, quivering light in all
that blackness; it burned softly, as if for itself.
Fenella's father pushed on with quick, nervous strides. Beside him her
grandma bustled along in her crackling black ulster; they went so fast that
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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 Pericles by William Shakespeare: For riches strew'd herself even in the streets;
Whose towers bore heads so high they kiss'd the clouds,
And strangers ne'er beheld but wonder'd at;
Whose men and dames so jetted and adorn'd,
Like one another's glass to trim them by:
Their tables were stored full, to glad the sight,
And not so much to feed on as delight;
All poverty was scorn'd, and pride so great,
The name of help grew odious to repeat.
DIONYZA.
O, 'tis too true.
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