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: simplest and most direct manner, so that the meaning of the
ritual is perfectly transparent."
[1] See his Religion of the Semites, p. 320.
[2] They also recall the rites of the Passover--though in this
latter the blood was no longer drunk, nor the flesh eaten raw.
It seems strange, of course, that men should eat their
totems; and it must not by any means be supposed that
this practice is (or was) universal; but it undoubtedly
obtains in some cases. As Miss Harrison says (Themis,
p. 123); "you do not as a rule eat your relations," and as a
rule the eating of a totem is tabu and forbidden, but
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Now, in all the Western Hemisphere dwells no man who may not
find a school house within walking distance of his home, or
at least within flying distance.
The wildest beast that roams our waste places lairs in the
frozen north or the frozen south within a government
reserve, where the curious may view him and feed him bread
crusts from the hand with perfect impunity.
But beyond thirty! And I have gone there, and come back;
and now you may go there, for no longer is it high treason,
punishable by disgrace or death, to cross 30d or 175d.
My name is Jefferson Turck. I am a lieutenant in the navy--
Lost Continent |