| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: cette vipere rouge qui a vomi son venin sur moi. C'est etrange,
n'est-ce pas? Comment se fait-il que la vipere rouge ne remue plus?
. . . Tu n'as pas voulu de moi, Iokanaan. Tu m'as rejetee. Tu m'as
dit des choses infames. Tu m'as traitee comme une courtisane, comme
une prostituee, moi, Salome, fille d'Herodias, Princesse de Judee!
Eh bien, Iokanaan, moi je vis encore, mais toi tu es mort et ta tete
m'appartient. Je puis en faire ce que je veux. Je puis la jeter
aux chiens et aux oiseaux de l'air. Ce que laisseront les chiens,
les oiseaux de l'air le mangeront . . . Ah! Iokanaan, Iokanaan, tu
as ete le seul homme que j'ai aime. Tous les autres hommes
m'inspirent du degout. Mais, toi, tu etais beau. Ton corps etait
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: women of the world complain of the way men love them, they have little
liking themselves for those whose soul is half feminine. Their own
superiority consists in making men believe they are their inferiors in
love; therefore they will readily leave a lover if he is inexperienced
enough to rob them of those fears with which they seek to deck
themselves, those delightful tortures of feigned jealousy, those
troubles of hope betrayed, those futile expectations,--in short, the
whole procession of their feminine miseries. They hold Sir Charles
Grandison in horror. What can be more contrary to their nature than a
tranquil, perfect love? They want emotions; happiness without storms
is not happiness to them. Women with souls that are strong enough to
Ferragus |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: hole. And then another little one came. They snuffed about the Fir Tree, and
rustled among the branches.
"It is dreadfully cold," said the Mouse. "But for that, it would be delightful
here, old Fir, wouldn't it?"
"I am by no means old," said the Fir Tree. "There's many a one considerably
older than I am."
"Where do you come from," asked the Mice; "and what can you do?" They were so
extremely curious. "Tell us about the most beautiful spot on the earth. Have
you never been there? Were you never in the larder, where cheeses lie on the
shelves, and hams hang from above; where one dances about on tallow candles:
that place where one enters lean, and comes out again fat and portly?"
Fairy Tales |
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 Moby Dick by Herman Melville: ME that other and more awful lesson which Jonah teaches to ME, as a
pilot of the living God. How being an anointed pilot-prophet, or
speaker of true things, and bidden by the Lord to sound those
unwelcome truths in the ears of a wicked Nineveh, Jonah, appalled at
the hostility he should raise, fled from his mission, and sought to
escape his duty and his God by taking ship at Joppa. But God is
everywhere; Tarshish he never reached. As we have seen, God came
upon him in the whale, and swallowed him down to living gulfs of
doom, and with swift slantings tore him along 'into the midst of the
seas,' where the eddying depths sucked him ten thousand fathoms down,
and 'the weeds were wrapped about his head,' and all the watery world
Moby Dick |
