Today's Stichomancy for Jet Li

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson:

lost,' he whispered. And the next moment he was babbling for his life among the multitude.

Five minutes later the wild-eyed servant burst into the armoury. 'All is lost!' he cried. 'The Chancellor bids you flee.' And at the same time, looking through the window, Seraphina saw the black rush of the populace begin to invade the lamplit avenue.

'Thank you, Georg,' she said. 'I thank you. Go.' And as the man still lingered, 'I bid you go,' she added. 'Save yourself.'

Down by the private passage, and just some two hours later, Amalia Seraphina, the last Princess, followed Otto Johann Friedrich, the last Prince of Grunewald.

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll:

`And darker.' said Tweedledee.

It was getting dark so suddenly that Alice thought there must be a thunderstorm coming on. `What a thick black cloud that is!' she said. `And how fast it comes! Why, I do believe it's got wings!'

`It's the crow!' Tweedledum cried out in a shrill voice of alarm: and the two brothers took to their heels and were out of sight in a moment.

Alice ran a little way into the wood, and stopped under a large tree. `It can never get at me HERE,' she thought: `it's far too large to squeeze itself in among the trees. But I wish it wouldn't

Through the Looking-Glass

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov:

I fancied that he had been wounded by a wild boar, at another time, that he had been carried off by a Chechene into the mountains. . . But, now, I have come to think that he no longer loves me.'

"'In truth, my dear girl, you could not have imagined anything worse!'

"She burst out crying; then, proudly raising her head, she wiped away the tears and con- tinued:

"'If he does not love me, then who prevents

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 Tanach:

Isaiah 32: 1 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and as for princes, they shall rule in justice.

Isaiah 32: 2 And a man shall be as in a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as by the watercourses in a dry place, as in the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

Isaiah 32: 3 And the eyes of them that see shall not be closed, and the ears of them that hear shall attend.

Isaiah 32: 4 The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.

Isaiah 32: 5 The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be noble.

Isaiah 32: 6 For the vile person will speak villainy, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise ungodliness, and to utter wickedness against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

Isaiah 32: 7 The instruments also of the churl are evil; he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, and the needy when he speaketh right.

Isaiah 32: 8 But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.

Isaiah 32: 9 Rise up, ye women that are at ease, and hear my voice; ye confident daughters, give ear unto my speech.

Isaiah 32: 10 After a year and days shall ye be troubled, ye confident women; for the vintage shall fail, the ingathering shall not come.

The Tanach