Today's Stichomancy for Leonard Cohen

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley:

creatures, and rendered me unsocial; but Clerval called forth the better feelings of my heart; he again taught me to love the aspect of nature, and the cheerful faces of children. Excellent friend! how sincerely you did love me, and endeavour to elevate my mind until it was on a level with your own. A selfish pursuit had cramped and narrowed me, until your gentleness and affection warmed and opened my senses; I became the same happy creature who, a few years ago, loved and beloved by all, had no sorrow or care. When happy, inanimate nature had the power of bestowing on me the most delightful sensations. A serene sky and verdant fields filled me with ecstasy. The present season was indeed divine; the flowers of

Frankenstein

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson:

uniform of a private of dragoons, was choosing out notes on a key- bugle. Two or three daughters lay in the neighbourhood picking violets. And the whole party as grave and silent as the woods around them! My friend watched for a long time, he says; but all held their peace; not one spoke or smiled; only the dragoon kept choosing out single notes upon the bugle, and the father knitted away at his work and made strange movements the while with his flexible eyebrows. They took no notice whatever of my friend's presence, which was disquieting in itself, and increased the resemblance of the whole party to mechanical waxworks. Certainly, he affirms, a wax figure might have played the bugle with more spirit than that strange

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence:

this year and another next. But Wragby still stands. Stick by Wragby as far as Wragby sticks by you. Then please yourself. But you'll get very little out of making a break. You can make a break if you wish. You have an independent income, the only thing that never lets you down. But you won't get much out of it. Put a little baronet in Wragby. It's an amusing thing to do.'

And Sir Malcolm sat back and smiled again. Connie did not answer.

'I hope you had a real man at last,' he said to her after a while, sensually alert.

'I did. That's the trouble. There aren't many of them about,' she said.

'No, by God!' he mused. 'There aren't! Well, my dear, to look at you,

Lady Chatterley's Lover

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:

1_Chronicles 2: 41 and Shallum begot Jekamiah, and Jekamiah begot Elishama.

1_Chronicles 2: 42 And the sons of Caleb the brother of Jerahmeel were Mesha his first-born, who was the father of Ziph, and the sons of Mareshah the father of Hebron.

1_Chronicles 2: 43 And the sons of Hebron: Korah, and Tappuah, and Rekem, and Shema.

1_Chronicles 2: 44 And Shema begot Raham, the father of Jorkeam; and Rekem begot Shammai.

1_Chronicles 2: 45 And the son of Shammai was Maon; and Maon was the father of Beth-zur.

1_Chronicles 2: 46 And Ephah, Caleb's concubine, bore Haran, and Moza, and Gazez; and Haran begot Gazez.

1_Chronicles 2: 47 And the sons of Jahdai: Regem, and Jotham, and Geshan, and Pelet, and Ephah, and Shaaph.

1_Chronicles 2: 48 Maacah, Caleb's concubine, bore Sheber and Tirhanah.

1_Chronicles 2: 49 And the wife of Shaaph the father of Madmannah bore Sheva the father of Machbenah and the father of Gibea. And the daughter of Caleb was Achsah.

1_Chronicles 2: 50 These were the sons of Caleb. The sons of Hur the first-born of Ephrath: Shobal the father of Kiriath-jearim;

1_Chronicles 2: 51 Salma the father of Beth-lehem, Hareph the father of Beth-gader.

The Tanach