| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: rode out. We rode as we had ridden together twenty years before,
when we went out coursing with our greyhounds; that is, across
country, over the fields.
It was all the same to me which way we rode, as I believed
that all the neighboring villages were equally distressed, and
my father, for the sake of old memories, wanted to revisit
Spásskoye Lyutovinóvo, which was only six miles from
me, and where he had not been since Turgénieff's death. On
the way there I remember he told me all about Turgénieff's
mother, who was famous through all the neighborhood for her
remarkable intelligence, energy, and craziness. I do not know that
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: keep the wide heaven. Would that such an one might be
called my husband, dwelling here, and that it might please
him here to abide! But come, my maidens, give the stranger
meat and drink.'
Thus she spake, and they gave ready ear and hearkened, and
set beside Odysseus meat and drink, and the steadfast
goodly Odysseus did eat and drink eagerly, for it was long
since he had tasted food.
Now Nausicaa of the white arms had another thought. She
folded the raiment and stored it in the goodly wain, and
yoked the mules strong of hoof, and herself climbed into
The Odyssey |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: incarnate and is made an image, he made of himself the image of the
Man of Sorrows, and as such has fascinated and dominated art as no
Greek god ever succeeded in doing.
For the Greek gods, in spite of the white and red of their fair
fleet limbs, were not really what they appeared to be. The curved
brow of Apollo was like the sun's disc crescent over a hill at
dawn, and his feet were as the wings of the morning, but he himself
had been cruel to Marsyas and had made Niobe childless. In the
steel shields of Athena's eyes there had been no pity for Arachne;
the pomp and peacocks of Hera were all that was really noble about
her; and the Father of the Gods himself had been too fond of the
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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 Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: We conclude therefore that a Christian man does not live in
himself, but in Christ and in his neighbour, or else is no
Christian: in Christ by faith; in his neighbour by love. By faith
he is carried upwards above himself to God, and by love he sinks
back below himself to his neighbour, still always-abiding in God
and His love, as Christ says, "Verily I say unto you, Hereafter
ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and
descending upon the Son of man" (John i. 51).
Thus much concerning liberty, which, as you see, is a true and
spiritual liberty, making our hearts free from all sins, laws,
and commandments, as Paul says, "The law is not made for a
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