| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rig Veda: nor sin
nor sorrow trouble thee.
9 Health-giving medicines descend sent down from heaven in
twos and
threes,
Or wandering singly on the earth. May Heaven and Earth uproot
and
sweep iniquity and shame away: nor sin nor sorrow trouble thee.
10 Drive forward thou the wagon-ox, O Indra, which brought
Usinarani's
wagon hither.
The Rig Veda |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pericles by William Shakespeare: Modest as Justice, and thou seem'st a palace
For the crown'd Truth to dwell in: I will believe thee,
And make my senses credit thy relation
To points that seem impossible; for thou look'st
Like one I loved indeed. What were thy friends?
Didst thou not say, when I did push thee back --
Which was when I perceived thee -- that thou earnest
From good descending?
MARINA.
So indeed I did.
PERICLES.
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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 A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: We were twenty days upon the road, crossing two sea bottoms
and passing through or around a number of ruined cities,
mostly smaller than Korad. Twice we crossed the famous
Martian waterways, or canals, so-called by our earthly
astronomers. When we approached these points a warrior
would be sent far ahead with a powerful field glass, and if
no great body of red Martian troops was in sight we would
advance as close as possible without chance of being seen and
then camp until dark, when we would slowly approach the
cultivated tract, and, locating one of the numerous, broad
highways which cross these areas at regular intervals, creep
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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 Merry Men by Robert Louis Stevenson: to her husband for her own sake rather than for his. She was
imperturbably good-natured, but had no idea of self-sacrifice. To
live in that pleasant old house, with a green garden behind and
bright flowers about the window, to eat and drink of the best, to
gossip with a neighbour for a quarter of an hour, never to wear
stays or a dress except when she went to Fontainebleau shopping, to
be kept in a continual supply of racy novels, and to be married to
Doctor Desprez and have no ground of jealousy, filled the cup of
her nature to the brim. Those who had known the Doctor in bachelor
days, when he had aired quite as many theories, but of a different
order, attributed his present philosophy to the study of Anastasie.
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