| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: This sum has been estimated at six or seven hundred thousand francs.
If the indictment is to be trusted, he has hidden it in some place
known to himself alone, and it has not been possible to lay hands
on it. However that may be, the said Jean Valjean has just been
brought before the Assizes of the Department of the Var as accused
of highway robbery accompanied with violence, about eight years ago,
on the person of one of those honest children who, as the patriarch
of Ferney has said, in immortal verse,
". . . Arrive from Savoy every year,
And who, with gentle hands, do clear
Those long canals choked up with soot."
Les Miserables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: Oh dear, how hard it was to be indifferent like the others! She tried not
to smile too much; she tried not to care. But every single thing was so
new and exciting ...Meg's tuberoses, Jose's long loop of amber, Laura's
little dark head, pushing above her white fur like a flower through snow.
She would remember for ever. It even gave her a pang to see her cousin
Laurie throw away the wisps of tissue paper he pulled from the fastenings
of his new gloves. She would like to have kept those wisps as a keepsake,
as a remembrance. Laurie leaned forward and put his hand on Laura's knee.
"Look here, darling," he said. "The third and the ninth as usual. Twig?"
Oh, how marvellous to have a brother! In her excitement Leila felt that if
there had been time, if it hadn't been impossible, she couldn't have helped
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: meaning that it was fastened, and I could not open it, but I
believe all the doors were found bolted on the inside."
"Still, as far as you are concerned, the door might equally well
have been locked?"
"Oh, yes."
"You yourself did not happen to notice, madame, when you entered
Mrs. Inglethorp's room, whether that door was bolted or not?"
"I--I believe it was."
"But you did not see it?"
"No. I--never looked."
"But I did," interrupted Lawrence suddenly. "I happened to
The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
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 Koran: That is a nation that has passed away, theirs is what they gained;
and yours shall be what ye have gained; ye shall not be questioned
as to that which they have done.
They say, 'Be ye Jews or Christians so shall ye of Abraham be
guided.' Say, 'Not so! but the faith of Abraham he was not of the
idolaters.'
Say ye, 'We believe in God, and what has been revealed to us, and
what has been revealed to Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and
Jacob, and the Tribes, and what was brought to Moses and Jesus, and
what was brought unto the Prophets from their Lord; we will not
distinguish between any one of them, and unto Him are we resigned.'
The Koran |
