| 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: wives with fair tire sent them wheaten bread. Thus were
these men preparing the feast in the halls.
But the wooers meantime were before the palace of Odysseus,
taking their pleasure in casting of weights and spears, on
a levelled place, as heretofore, in their insolence. And
Antinous and god-like Eurymachus were seated there, the
chief men of the wooers, who were far the most excellent of
all. And Noemon, son of Phromius, drew nigh to them and
spake unto Antinous and questioned him, saying:
'Antinous, know we at all, or know we not, when Telemachus
will return from sandy Pylos? He hath departed with a ship
The Odyssey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy: impatiently, looking out from his compartment. 'What is it?'
'That singular carriage we saw has been unfastened from our train
by mistake, it seems,' said Stephen.
He was watching the process of attaching it. The van or carriage,
which he now recognized as having seen at Paddington before they
started, was rich and solemn rather than gloomy in aspect. It
seemed to be quite new, and of modern design, and its impressive
personality attracted the notice of others beside himself. He
beheld it gradually wheeled forward by two men on each side:
slower and more sadly it seemed to approach: then a slight
concussion, and they were connected with it, and off again.
A Pair of Blue Eyes |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Danny's Own Story by Don Marquis: it. He says if things go well he will let Doctor
Kirby be manager of that company, and let him
have some stock in it too, and he will be president
and treasurer of it himself.
Doctor Kirby, he didn't like that, and said so.
Said HE was going to organize that stock company,
and control it himself. But Doctor Jackson said
he never put money into nothing he couldn't run.
So it was settled we would give the stuff a try-out
and report to him. Before we went away from
there it looked to me like Doctor Kirby and me was
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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 Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: herb Homa, and by the preservation of the sacred fire, which,
understand, was not he, but the symbol--as was light and the sun--of
the good spirit--of Ahura Mazda. They had no images of the gods,
these old Persians; no temples, no altars, so says Herodotus, and
considered the use of them a sign of folly. They were, as has been
well said of them, the Puritans of the old world. When they
descended from their mountain fastnesses, they became the
iconoclasts of the old world; and the later Isaiah, out of the
depths of national shame, captivity, and exile, saw in them brother-
spirits, the chosen of the Lord, whose hero Cyrus, the Lord was
holding by His right hand, till all the foul superstitions and foul
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