| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: Melaneus, renowned Amphimedon, who had been his host,
having his dwelling in Ithaca. The soul of the son of
Atreus spake to him first, saying:
'Amphimedon, what hath befallen you, that ye have come
beneath the darkness of earth, all of you picked men and of
like age? it is even as though one should choose out and
gather together the best warriors in a city. Did Poseidon
smite you in your ships and rouse up contrary winds and the
long waves? Or did unfriendly men, perchance, do you hurt
upon the land as ye were cutting off their oxen and fair
flocks of sheep, or while they fought to defend their city
The Odyssey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: light that it remains itself invisible; so clear that it seems
illusion! Though portrayer so perfect of forms about it, all we know
of the thing itself is that it is. Through none of the five senses
do we perceive it. Neither sight, nor hearing, nor taste, nor smell,
nor touch can tell us it exists; we feel it to be by the muscular
sense alone, that blind and dumb analogue for the body of what
consciousness is for the soul. Only when disturbed, troubled, does
the water itself become visible, and then it is but the surface that
we see. So to the Far Oriental this still little lake typifies the
soul, the eventual purification of his own; a something lost in
reflection, self-effaced, only the alter ego of the outer world.
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: I left that evening; she wished to accompany me on the road to
Frapesle; and we stopped under my walnut-tree. I showed it to her, and
told her how I had first seen her four years earlier from that spot.
"The valley was so beautiful then!" I cried.
"And now?" she said quickly.
"You are beneath my tree, and the valley is ours!"
She bowed her head and that was our farewell; she got into her
carriage with Madeleine, and I into mine alone.
On my return to Paris I was absorbed in pressing business which took
all my time and kept me out of society, which for a while forgot me. I
corresponded with Madame de Mortsauf, and sent her my journal once a
The Lily of the Valley |
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 Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: His expression was concentrated, meditative, under the inspecting
light of the lamp I held up to his face; such as a man thinking
hard in solitude might wear. My sleeping suit was just right
for his size. A well-knit young fellow of twenty-five at most.
He caught his lower lip with the edge of white, even teeth.
"Yes," I said, replacing the lamp in the binnacle.
The warm, heavy tropical night closed upon his head again.
"There's a ship over there," he murmured.
"Yes, I know. The Sephora. Did you know of us?"
"Hadn't the slightest idea. I am the mate of her--"
He paused and corrected himself. "I should say I WAS."
The Secret Sharer |
