| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Underground City by Jules Verne: It was a fact that from time to time long flames appeared,
sometimes on a broken piece of wall, sometimes on the summit
of the tower which was the highest point of Dundonald Castle.
Did these flames really assume a human shape, as was asserted?
Did they merit the name of fire-maidens, given them by the people
of the coast? It was evidently just an optical delusion,
aided by a good deal of credulity, and science could easily
have explained the phenomenon.
However that might be, these fire-maidens had the reputation
of frequenting the ruins of the old castle and there
performing wild strathspeys, especially on dark nights.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: that that is MY affair."
"Your affair!" shouted Strong. "When that girl is living under
the church's roof, eating the church's bread!"
"Just one moment! You don't quite understand. I am minister of
this church, and for that position I receive, or am supposed to
receive, a salary to live on, and this parsonage, rent free, to
live in. Any guests that I may have here are MY guests, and NOT
guests of the church. Remember that, please."
There was an embarrassing silence. The deacons recalled that the
pastor's salary WAS slightly in arrears. Elverson coughed
meekly. Strong started.
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: lay before her, like the natural depths which rolled away at her feet.
This day was the second of those terrible days (that of the arrest of
the Vidame of Chartres being the first) which she was destined to meet
in so great numbers throughout her regal life; it also witnessed her
last blunder in the school of power. Though the sceptre seemed
escaping from her hands, she wished to seize it; and she did seize it
by a flash of that power of will which was never relaxed by either the
disdain of her father-in-law, Francois I., and his court,--where, in
spite of her rank of dauphiness, she had been of no account,--or the
constant repulses of her husband, Henri II., and the terrible
opposition of her rival, Diane de Poitiers. A man would never have
|
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 Street of Seven Stars by Mary Roberts Rinehart: the balcony rail!
"Throw myself over. I've tried, Peter. I cannot!"
"I should think not!" said Peter sternly. "Just now when we need
you, too! Come in and don't be a foolish child."
But Marie would not go in. She held back, clinging tight to
Peter's big hand, moaning out in the dialect of the people that
always confused him her story of the day, of what she had done,
of watching Stewart brought back, of stealing into the house and
through an adjacent room to the balcony, of her desperation and
her cowardice.
She was numb with cold, exhaustion, and hunger, quite childish,
|
