| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Tanach: 1_Chronicles 26: 9 And Meshelemiah had sons and brethren, valiant men, eighteen.
1_Chronicles 26: 10 Also Hosah, of the children of Merari, had sons: Shimri the chief--for though he was not the firstborn, yet his father made him chief--
1_Chronicles 26: 11 Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth; all the sons and brethren of Hosah were thirteen.
1_Chronicles 26: 12 These courses of the doorkeepers, even the chief men, had wards over against their brethren, to minister in the house of the LORD.
1_Chronicles 26: 13 And they cast lots, as well the small as the great, according to their fathers' houses, for every gate.
1_Chronicles 26: 14 And the lot eastward fell to Shelemiah. Then for Zechariah his son, a discreet counsellor, they cast lots; and his lot came out northward.
1_Chronicles 26: 15 To Obed-edom southward; and to his sons the Storehouse.
1_Chronicles 26: 16 To Shuppim and Hosah westward, by the gate of Shallecheth, at the causeway that goeth up, ward against ward.
1_Chronicles 26: 17 Eastward were six Levites, northward four a day, southward four a day, and for the Storehouse two and two.
1_Chronicles 26: 18 For the Precinct westward, four at the causeway, and two at the Precinct.
1_Chronicles 26: 19 These were the courses of the doorkeepers; of the sons of the Korahites, and of the sons of Merari.
The Tanach |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: One evening Juste and I were at work, sitting in perfect silence.
Marcas had just risen to toil at his copying, for he had refused our
assistance in spite of our most earnest entreaties. We had offered to
take it in turns to copy a batch of manuscript, so that he should do
but a third of his distasteful task; he had been quite angry, and we
had ceased to insist.
We heard the sound of gentlemanly boots in the passage, and raised our
heads, looking at each other. There was a tap at Marcas' door--he
never took the key out of the lock--and we heard the hero answer:
"Come in." Then--"What, you here, monsieur?"
"I, myself," replied the retired minister.
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Iron Puddler by James J. Davis: because a bloody fight occurred there almost every day. Any meal
might end in a knock-down-and-drag-out. The ambulance called
there almost as often as the baker's cart. But it was a "good"
boarding-house. And I established myself there.
Good board consists in lots of greasy meat, strong coffee and
slabs of sweet pie with gummy crusts, as thick as the palm of
your hand. At the Bucket of Blood we had this delicious fare and
plenty of it. When a man comes out of the mills he wants quantity
as well as quality. We had both at the Bucket of Blood, and
whenever a man got knocked out by a fist and was carted away in
the ambulance, the next man on the waiting list was voted into
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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 In the Cage by Henry James: tremendously right--to show him in some sharp sweet way that she
had perfectly penetrated the greatest of these last and now lived
with it in a kind of heroism of sympathy. He was in love with a
woman to whom, and to any view of whom, a lady-telegraphist, and
especially one who passed a life among hams and cheeses, was as the
sand on the floor; and what her dreams desired was the possibility
of its somehow coming to him that her own interest in him could
take a pure and noble account of such an infatuation and even of
such an impropriety. As yet, however, she could only rub along
with the hope that an accident, sooner or later, might give her a
lift toward popping out with something that would surprise and
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