Today's Stichomancy for Steve McQueen

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lucile by Owen Meredith:

Or indifference by me,--in passing that day Might pause with a word or a smile to repay This devotion,--and then" . . .

XXVIII.

To Matilda's relief At that moment her husband approach'd. With some grief I must own that her welcome, perchance, was express'd The more eagerly just for one twinge in her breast Of a conscience disturb'd, and her smile not less warm, Though she saw the Comtesse de Nevers on his arm.

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Two Noble Kinsmen by William Shakespeare:

Not to be held ungratefull to her goodnes, Has given a summe of money to her Marriage, A large one, ile assure you.

IAILOR.

Ye are a good man And ever bring good newes.

1. FRIEND.

How was it ended?

2. FRIEND.

Why, as it should be; they that nev'r begd But they prevaild, had their suites fairely granted,

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Tanach:

Leviticus 7: 30 His own hands shall bring the offerings of the LORD made by fire: the fat with the breast shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for a wave-offering before the LORD.

Leviticus 7: 31 And the priest shall make the fat smoke upon the altar; but the breast shall be Aaron's and his sons'.

Leviticus 7: 32 And the right thigh shall ye give unto the priest for a heave-offering out of your sacrifices of peace-offerings.

Leviticus 7: 33 He among the sons of Aaron, that offereth the blood of the peace-offerings, and the fat, shall have the right thigh for a portion.

Leviticus 7: 34 For the breast of waving and the thigh of heaving have I taken of the children of Israel out of their sacrifices of peace-offerings, and have given them unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons as a due for ever from the children of Israel.

Leviticus 7: 35 This is the consecrated portion of Aaron, and the consecrated portion of his sons, out of the offerings of the LORD made by fire, in the day when they were presented to minister unto the LORD in the priest's office;

Leviticus 7: 36 which the LORD commanded to be given them of the children of Israel, in the day that they were anointed. It is a due for ever throughout their generations.

Leviticus 7: 37 This is the law of the burnt-offering, of the meal-offering, and of the sin-offering, and of the guilt-offering, and of the consecration-offering, and of the sacrifice of peace-offerings;

The Tanach

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 Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre:

accepted without hesitation and sucked dry as soon as numbed. Those giants, capable of making a hole in the net and passing through it in their impetuous onrush, can be but rarely caught. I myself place them on the web. The Spider does the rest. Lavishing her silky spray, she swathes them and then sucks the body at her ease. With an increased expenditure of the spinnerets, the very biggest game is mastered as successfully as the everyday prey.

I have seen even better than that. This time, my subject is the Silky Epeira (Epeira sericea, OLIV.), with a broad, festooned, silvery abdomen. Like that of the other, her web is large, upright and 'signed' with a zigzag ribbon. I place upon it a Praying

The Life of the Spider