Today's Stichomancy for Hugo Chavez
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: we have committed, is that which becomes a good and sensible man. Some
reasons I may have to accuse fortune, but I have many more to thank her;
for in a few hours she hath cured a long mistake, and taught me that I
am not the man who should command others, but have need of another to
command me; and that we are not to contend for victory over those to
whom it is our advantage to yield. Therefore in everything else
henceforth the dictator must be your commander; only in showing
gratitude towards him I will still be your leader, and always be the
first to obey his orders." Having said this, he commanded the Roman
eagles to move forward, and all his men to follow him to the camp of
Fabius. The soldiers, then, as he entered, stood amazed at the novelty
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: impossible for one who is lame and wanteth men's aid to be a God.
"After him, they represent as a god Hermes, a lusty fellow, a
thief, and a covetous, a sorcerer, bowlegged, and an interpreter
of speech. It is impossible for such an one to be a God.
"They also exhibit Asklepius as god, a physician, a maker of
medicines, a compounder of plasters for his livelihood (for he is
a needy wight), and in the end, they say that he was struck by
Zeus with a thunder-bolt, because of Tyndareus, son of
Lakedaemon, and thus perished. Now if Asklepius, though a god,
when struck by a thunder-bolt, could not help himself, how can he
help others?
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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 Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: constantly studied, seem supreme and imposing, perhaps one so
magnificently handsome as the Duchess could fascinate to stupidity a
youth in whom rapture found some fresh incitement; for she had really
absorbed his young soul.
Massimilla, the heiress of the Doni, of Florence, had married the
Sicilian Duke Cataneo. Her mother, since dead, had hoped, by promoting
this marriage, to leave her rich and happy, according to Florentine
custom. She had concluded that her daughter, emerging from a convent
to embark in life, would achieve, under the laws of love, that second
union of heart with heart which, to an Italian woman, is all in all.
But Massimilla Doni had acquired in her convent a real taste for a
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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 A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: in Him forever; as He says, John xiv: "I am the Way, the Truth
and the Life," -- the Way, in which we follow Him; the Truth,
that we believe in Him; the Life, that we live in Him forever.
From all this it is now manifest that all other works, which are
not commanded, are perilous and easily known: such as building
churches, beautifying them, making pilgrimages, and all that is
written at so great length in the Canon Law and has misled and
burdened the world and ruined it, made uneasy consciences,
silenced and weakened faith, and has not said how a man, although
he neglect all else, has enough to do with all his powers to keep
the Commandments of God, and can never do all the good works
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