| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: Latournelle, frightened at Dumay's rage.
After stating the facts on which his suspicions were founded, Dumay
begged Madame Latournelle to go and stay at the Chalet during his
absence.
"You will find the colonel in Paris," said the notary. "In the
shipping news quoted this morning in the Journal of Commerce, I found
under the head of Marseilles--here, see for yourself," he said,
offering the paper. "'The Bettina Mignon, Captain Mignon, arrived
October 6'; it is now the 17th, and the colonel is sure to be in
Paris."
Dumay requested Gobenheim to do without him in future, and then went
Modeste Mignon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Princess by Alfred Tennyson: Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.
'Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.
'Dear as remembered kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: gratification over prostrate serfs, and to have the breath of the
trumpet in his nostrils. So rides for ever, on the front of the
town-hall, the good king Louis XII., the father of his people.
Over the king's head, in the tall centre turret, appears the dial
of a clock; and high above that, three little mechanical figures,
each one with a hammer in his hand, whose business it is to chime
out the hours and halves and quarters for the burgesses of
Compiegne. The centre figure has a gilt breast-plate; the two
others wear gilt trunk-hose; and they all three have elegant,
flapping hats like cavaliers. As the quarter approaches, they turn
their heads and look knowingly one to the other; and then, KLING go
|
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 Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: moment to another spread its wings and leave me in my night, it
is a permanent habitation. He can depart only if he takes me
with him. More than that; he is not other than myself: he is
one with me. It is not a juxtaposition, it is a penetration, a
profound modification of my nature, a new manner of my being."
Quoted from the MS. of an old man by Wilfred Monod: II Vit:
six meditations sur le mystere chretien, pp. 280-283.
This overcoming of all the usual barriers between the individual
and the Absolute is the great mystic achievement. In mystic
states we both become one with the Absolute and we become aware
of our oneness. This is the everlasting and triumphant mystical
|
