Today's Stichomancy for Claire Forlani

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche:

Ye do not yet suffer enough for me! For ye suffer from yourselves, ye have not yet suffered FROM MAN. Ye would lie if ye spake otherwise! None of you suffereth from what _I_ have suffered.--

It is not enough for me that the lightning no longer doeth harm. I do not wish to conduct it away: it shall learn--to work for ME.--

My wisdom hath accumulated long like a cloud, it becometh stiller and darker. So doeth all wisdom which shall one day bear LIGHTNINGS.--

Unto these men of to-day will I not be LIGHT, nor be called light. THEM-- will I blind: lightning of my wisdom! put out their eyes!

Thus Spake Zarathustra

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner:

had broken the window, in the hope of escape, perhaps, or to throw out the package which should bring assistance - all these facts grouped themselves together in the brain of the intelligent working-man to form some terrible tragedy where his assistance, if given at once, might be of great use. He had a warm heart besides, a heart that reached out to this unknown who was in distress, and who threw out the call for help which had fallen into his hands.

He waited no longer to ponder over the matter, but started off at a full run for the nearest police station. He rushed into the room and told his story breathlessly.

They took him into the next room, the office of the commissioner

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay:

refuse to recognise his existence, he is as good as not here."

"I'm beginning to be tired of it all," said Maskull. "It seems as if I shall add one more to my murders, before I have finished."

"I smell murder in the air," exclaimed Krag, pretending to sniff. "But whose?"

"Do as I say, Maskull. To bandy words with him is to throw oil on fire."

"I'll say no more to anyone.... When do we get out of this accursed forest?"

"It's some way yet, but when we're once out we can take to the water, and you will be able to rest, and think."

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 Symposium by Xenophon:

where the poet has a fling at Socrates also:

Socrates beside the brink, Summons from the murky sink Many a disembodied ghost; And Peisander reached the coast To raise the spirit that he lost; With conviction strange and new, A gawky camel which he slew, Like Ulysses.--Whereupon, etc.

H. Frere

Cf. "Peace," 395; "Lysistr." 490.

The Symposium