Today's Stichomancy for Chow Yun Fat
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell: but what can I do? It really is not my fault; it is just because
my legs are so short. I stand nearly as high as you,
but your legs are a good three inches longer above your knee than mine,
and of course you can take a much longer step and go much faster.
You see I did not make myself. I wish I could have done so;
I would have had long legs then. All my troubles come from my short legs,"
said Peggy, in a desponding tone.
"But how is it," I said, "when you are so strong and good-tempered
and willing?"
"Why, you see," said she, "men will go so fast, and if one can't
keep up to other horses it is nothing but whip, whip, whip, all the time.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac: conjugal fidelity, her stock of excuses for refusing herself to
his love. He had gained ground a little, and congratulated
himself. And so for a time he took unfair advantage of the
rights so hardly won. More a boy than he had ever been in his
life, he gave himself up to all the childishness that makes first
love the flower of life. He was a child again as he poured out
all his soul, all the thwarted forces that passion had given him,
upon her hands, upon the dazzling forehead that looked so pure to
his eyes; upon her fair hair; on the tufted curls where his lips
were pressed. And the Duchess, on whom his love was poured like
a flood, was vanquished by the magnetic influence of her lover's
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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 Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: now it all stood out in brilliant light, as a picture, before
him. Above all there came to his nostrils the scent of summer,
the smell of flowers mingled, and the odour of the woods, of
cool shaded places, deep in the green depths, drawn forth by the
sun's heat; and the scent of the good earth, lying as it were
with arms stretched forth, and smiling lips, overpowered all.
His fancies made him wander, as he had wandered long ago, from
the fields into the wood, tracking a little path between the
shining undergrowth of beech-trees; and the trickle of water
dropping from the limestone rock sounded as a clear melody in
the dream. Thoughts began to go astray and to mingle with other
 The Great God Pan |
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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: shore three or four weeks afterwards, and who, carrying on their
revels as usual, went off in two days' time. This thought
terrified them exceedingly; for they concluded, and that not
without good cause indeed, that if this fellow came home safe among
his comrades, he would certainly give them an account that there
were people in the island, and also how few and weak they were; for
this savage, as observed before, had never been told, and it was
very happy he had not, how many there were or where they lived; nor
had he ever seen or heard the fire of any of their guns, much less
had they shown him any of their other retired places; such as the
cave in the valley, or the new retreat which the two Englishmen had
 Robinson Crusoe |
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