| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from King James Bible: CO1 5:6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump?
CO1 5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump,
as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
CO1 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither
with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth.
CO1 5:9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
CO1 5:10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with
the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs
go out of the world.
King James Bible |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: of brown petticoat, which vanished behind a big picture draped,
together with the easel, with black calico, to the floor. There
could be no doubt that a woman was hiding there. How often Olga
Ivanovna herself had taken refuge behind that picture!
Ryabovsky, evidently much embarrassed, held out both hands to
her, as though surprised at her arrival, and said with a forced
smile:
"Aha! Very glad to see you! Anything nice to tell me?"
Olga Ivanovna's eyes filled with tears. She felt ashamed and
bitter, and would not for a million roubles have consented to
speak in the presence of the outsider, the rival, the deceitful
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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 The Virginian by Owen Wister: the first two minutes of our acquaintance, I should have resented
it; by what right, then, had I tried it with him? It smacked of
patronizing: on this occasion he had come off the better
gentleman of the two. Here in flesh and blood was a truth which I
had long believed in words, but never met before. The creature we
call a GENTLEMAN lies deep in the hearts of thousands that are
born without chance to master the outward graces of the type.
Between the station and the eating-house I did a deal of straight
thinking. But my thoughts were destined presently to be drowned
in amazement at the rare personage into whose society fate had
thrown me.
The Virginian |
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 Crito by Plato: respect to us the laws, of whom you are the destroyer; and are doing what
only a miserable slave would do, running away and turning your back upon
the compacts and agreements which you made as a citizen. And first of all
answer this very question: Are we right in saying that you agreed to be
governed according to us in deed, and not in word only? Is that true or
not?' How shall we answer, Crito? Must we not assent?
CRITO: We cannot help it, Socrates.
SOCRATES: Then will they not say: 'You, Socrates, are breaking the
covenants and agreements which you made with us at your leisure, not in any
haste or under any compulsion or deception, but after you have had seventy
years to think of them, during which time you were at liberty to leave the
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