| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Koran: prescribed for us to fight, couldst thou not let us abide till our
near appointed time?' Say, 'The enjoyment of this world is but slight,
and the next is better for him who fears;'- but they shall not be
wronged a straw.
Wheresoe'er ye be death will overtake you, though ye were in lofty
towers. And if a good thing befall them, they say, 'This is from God,'
but if a bad thing, they say, 'This is from thee.' Say, 'It is all
from God.' What ails these people? they can hardly understand a tale.
What befalls thee of good it is from God; and what befalls thee of
bad it is from thyself. We have sent thee to mankind as an apostle,
and God sufficeth for a witness.
The Koran |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Phoenix and the Turtle by William Shakespeare: Augur of the fever's end,
To this troop come thou not near.
From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the eagle, feather'd king:
Keep the obsequy so strict.
Let the priest in surplice white,
That defunctive music can,
Be the death-defying swan,
Lest the requiem lack his right.
And thou, treble-dated crow,
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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 Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: Had part in this faire Maid, now heauen hath all,
And all the better is it for the Maid:
Your part in her, you could not keepe from death,
But heauen keepes his part in eternall life:
The most you sought was her promotion,
For 'twas your heauen, she shouldst be aduan'st,
And weepe ye now, seeing she is aduan'st
Aboue the Cloudes, as high as Heauen it selfe?
O in this loue, you loue your Child so ill,
That you run mad, seeing that she is well:
Shee's not well married, that liues married long,
Romeo and Juliet |
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 Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: so lenient in moral matters, that life seemed very easy.
A fine, clean, and polite isvostchik drove him past fine, clean,
polite policemen, along the fine, clean, watered streets, past
fine, clean houses to the house in which Mariette lived. At the
front door stood a pair of English horses, with English harness,
and an English-looking coachman on the box, with the lower part
of his face shaved, proudly holding a whip. The doorkeeper,
dressed in a wonderfully clean livery, opened the door into the
hall, where in still cleaner livery with gold cords stood the
footman with his splendid whiskers well combed out, and the
orderly on duty in a brand-new uniform. "The general does not
Resurrection |
