| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Flame and Shadow by Sara Teasdale: And found his crown stolen and his throne decayed.
"Let It Be Forgotten"
Let it be forgotten, as a flower is forgotten,
Forgotten as a fire that once was singing gold,
Let it be forgotten for ever and ever,
Time is a kind friend, he will make us old.
If anyone asks, say it was forgotten
Long and long ago,
As a flower, as a fire, as a hushed footfall
In a long forgotten snow.
The Dark Cup
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: golden hair, so finely spun that it looked more like silk than
metal, and these wreaths descended into and mixed with a beard and
whiskers of the same exquisite workmanship, which surrounded and
decorated a very fierce little face, of the reddest gold imaginable,
right in the front of the mug, with a pair of eyes in it which
seemed to command its whole circumference. It was impossible to
drink out of the mug without being subjected to an intense gaze out
of the side of these eyes, and Schwartz positively averred that
once, after emptying it, full of Rhenish, seventeen times, he had
seen them wink! When it came to the mug's turn to be made into
spoons, it half broke poor little Gluck's heart; but the brothers
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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 Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Found the impress of his body.
From the lowlands far beneath them,
From the Muskoday, the meadow,
Pau-Puk-Keewis, turning backward,
Made a gesture of defiance,
Made a gesture of derision;
And aloud cried Hiawatha,
From the summit of the mountains:
"Not so long and wide the world is,
Not so rude and rough the way is,
But my wrath shall overtake you,
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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 Odyssey by Homer: to me and greet me, if they meet me in the street, or even
at the well, lest one go and tell it to the old man at
home, and he suspect somewhat and bind me in hard bonds and
devise death for all of you. But keep ye the matter in
mind, and speed the purchase of your homeward freight. And
when your ship is freighted with stores, let a message come
quickly to me at the house; for I will likewise bring gold,
all that comes under my hand. Yea and there is another
thing that I would gladly give for my fare. I am nurse to
the child of my lord in the halls, a most cunning little
boy, that runs out and abroad with me. Him would I bring on
The Odyssey |
