Today's Stichomancy for Oliver Stone

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Man against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson:

The original text was entered (manually) twice, and the two copies were electronically compared with `diff', to reduce typographical errors. Special thanks go to Gary M. Johnson, of Takoma Park, Maryland, for his assistance in procuring a copy of the original text.

The Man against the Sky

[Note on text: Italicized words or phrases are marked by tildes (~). Lines longer than 78 characters are broken and the continuation is indented two spaces. Some obvious errors may have been corrected.]

The Man against the Sky A Book of Poems by Edwin Arlington Robinson

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne:

voracious than the shark, more fearful in vastness than the whale? I could not take my eyes off this indented iron bar. Surely will my last night's dream be realised?

These thoughts agitated me all day, and my imagination scarcely calmed down after several hours' sleep.

_Monday, August 17. -_ I am trying to recall the peculiar instincts of the monsters of the preadamite world, who, coming next in succession after the molluscs, the crustaceans and le fishes, preceded the animals of mammalian race upon the earth. The world then belonged to reptiles. Those monsters held the mastery in the seas of the secondary period. They possessed a perfect organisation, gigantic

Journey to the Center of the Earth

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Reign of King Edward the Third by William Shakespeare:

Then, 'wife of Salisbury'; shall I so begin? No, he's my friend, and where is found the friend That will do friendship such indammagement?

[To the Countess.]

Neither my daughter nor my dear friend's wife, I am not Warwick, as thou thinkst I am, But an attorney from the Court of hell, That thus have housed my spirit in his form, To do a message to thee from the king. The mighty king of England dotes on thee: He that hath power to take away thy life,

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 Poems of William Blake by William Blake:

Till to her own grave plot she came, & there she sat down. And heard this voice of sorrow breathed from the hollow pit.

Why cannot the Ear be closed to its own destruction? Or the glistening Eye to the poison of a smile! Why are Eyelids stord with arrows ready drawn, Where a thousand fighting men in ambush lie! Or an Eye of gifts & graces showring fruits & coined gold!

Why a Tongue impress'd with honey from every wind? Why an Ear, a whirlpool fierce to draw creations in? Why a Nostril wide inhaling terror trembling & affright Why a tender curb upon the youthful burning boy?

Poems of William Blake