| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: man, I shall pack you off on board ship to the mainland and send
you to king Echetus, who kills every one that comes near him. He
will cut off your nose and ears, and draw out your entrails for
the dogs to eat."
This frightened Irus still more, but they brought him into the
middle of the court, and the two men raised their hands to
fight. Then Ulysses considered whether he should let drive so
hard at him as to make an end of him then and there, or whether
he should give him a lighter blow that should only knock him
down; in the end he deemed it best to give the lighter blow for
fear the Achaeans should begin to suspect who he was. Then they
The Odyssey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: days are gone let this outlaw look to himself, for mayhap
things will not go so smoothly with him as he would like."
Then he turned to his archers, who stood near the Sherwood yeomen,
listening and wondering at all that passed. Quoth he,
"Gilbert, and thou, Tepus, and thou, Hubert, I have pledged
myself that ye shall shoot against these three fellows.
If ye outshoot the knaves I will fill your caps with silver pennies;
if ye fail ye shall lose your prizes that ye have won so fairly,
and they go to them that shoot against you, man to man.
Do your best, lads, and if ye win this bout ye shall be glad
of it to the last days of your life. Go, now, and get you gone
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: "Wherefore all the more, O lady, lend my lays an ever-living
charm" (H. A. J. Munro).
That a soul whose bloom is visible alike in beauty of external form,
free and unfettered, and an inner disposition, bashful, generous; a
spirit[32] at once imperial and affable,[33] born to rule among its
fellows--that such a being will, of course, admire and fondly cling to
his beloved, is a thesis which needs no further argument on my part.
Rather I will essay to teach you, how it is natural that this same
type of lover should in turn be loved by his soul's idol.[34]
[32] Cf. Plat. "Phaedr." 252 E.
[33] The epithet {philophron} occurs "Mem." III. i. 6, of a general;
The Symposium |
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 Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: her, the long habit of obedience, of humility, as well as agony
of fear, spoke in her voice. "Spare the boy!" she
whispered.
"You can't save him now," replied Tull stridently.
Her head was bowing to the inevitable. She was grasping the
truth, when suddenly there came, in inward constriction, a
hardening of gentle forces within her breast. Like a steel bar it
was stiffening all that had been soft and weak in her. She felt a
birth in her of something new and unintelligible. Once more her
strained gaze sought the sage-slopes. Jane Withersteen loved that
wild and purple wilderness. In times of sorrow it had been her
Riders of the Purple Sage |
