| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Poems of William Blake by William Blake: Is this a Worm? I see they lay helpless & naked: weeping
And none to answer, none to cherish thee with mothers smiles.
The Clod of Clay heard the Worms voice & rais'd her pitying head:
She bowd over the weeping infant, and her life exhald
In milky fondness, then on Thel she fix'd her humble eyes
O beauty of the vales of Har, we live not for ourselves,
Thou seest me the meanest thing, and so I am indeed:
My bosom of itself is cold, and of itself is dark,
But he that loves the lowly, pours his oil upon my head
And kisses me, and binds his nuptial bands around my breast.
And says; Thou mother of my children, I have loved thee
Poems of William Blake |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: "No, 'e doesn't," said I, in the heat of the moment.
"There you go!" he cried. "E, he says. E! E! E!"
He pointed a finger at me. He had struck to the heart of my
shame. I made the only possible reply by a rush at him.
"Hello!" he cried, at my blackavised attack. He dropped back
into an attitude that had some style in it, parried my blow, got
back at my cheek, and laughed with surprise and relief at his own
success. Whereupon I became a thing of murderous rage. He could
box as well or better than I--he had yet to realise I knew
anything of that at all--but I had fought once or twice to a
finish with bare fists. I was used to inflicting and enduring
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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 Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: dissuade them. But the twin girls would not be denied, so great was
their curiosity. So the prince said:
"Well, we will all go together, so that the Ki and I may be able to
protect you."
The Red Rogue gladly granted them admittance, and they passed him and
entered the great hall.
The place appeared to them to be completely empty, so they walked
along and came opposite the mirror. Here all stopped at once, and the
twin High Ki uttered exclamations of surprise, and the twin Ki
shouted, "Great Kika-koo!"
For there in the glass were the reflections of the three girls and
The Enchanted Island of Yew |
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 An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: Sometimes it had to serve mills; and being still a little river,
ran very dry and shallow in the meanwhile. We had to put our legs
out of the boat, and shove ourselves off the sand of the bottom
with our feet. And still it went on its way singing among the
poplars, and making a green valley in the world. After a good
woman, and a good book, and tobacco, there is nothing so agreeable
on earth as a river. I forgave it its attempt on my life; which
was after all one part owing to the unruly winds of heaven that had
blown down the tree, one part to my own mismanagement, and only a
third part to the river itself, and that not out of malice, but
from its great preoccupation over its business of getting to the
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