| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: rock made Abraham sacrifice to our Lord. And there is an altar;
and before that altar lie Godefray de Bouillon and Baldwin, and
other Christian kings of Jerusalem.
And there, nigh where our Lord was crucified, is this written in
Greek:
[Greek text which cannot be reproduced]
that is to say, in Latin, -
DEUS REX NOSTER ANTE SECULA OPERATUS EST SALUTEM, IN MEDIO TERRAE;
that is to say, -
THIS GOD OUR KING, BEFORE THE WORLDS, HATH WROUGHT HEALTH IN MIDST
OF THE EARTH.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare: More quaint, more pleasing, nor more commendable;
Belike you mean to make a puppet of me.
PETRUCHIO.
Why, true; he means to make a puppet of thee.
TAILOR.
She says your worship means to make a puppet of her.
PETRUCHIO.
O monstrous arrogance! Thou liest, thou thread,
Thou thimble,
Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail!
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket thou!
The Taming of the Shrew |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: or dolls. Even in the fully adult human, and in spite of differences of
training, the psychic activities over a large extent of life appear to be
absolutely identical. The male and female brains acquire languages, solve
mathematical problems, and master scientific detail in a manner wholly
indistinguishable: as illustrated by the fact that in modern universities
the papers sent in by male and female candidates are as a rule absolutely
identical in type. Placed in like external conditions, their tastes and
emotions, over a vast part of the surface of life, are identical; and, in
an immense number of those cases where psychic sex differences appear to
exist, subject to rigid analysis they are found to be purely artificial
creations, for, when other races or classes are studied, they are found
|
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 United States Constitution: on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin,
and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities
and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing
for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right
to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas,
The United States Constitution |
