| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: will do you no harm.'
'Neither here nor outside,' he retorted, looking for a moment at
his comrade. 'Only I hold the King's commission. That is all,
and, I think, enough.'
'Well--for the rest, will you throw a main?' he answered
evasively. 'Good! Lieutenant, find a glass, and the gentleman a
seat. And here, for my part, I will give you a toast The
Cardinal--whatever betide!'
I drank it, and sat down to play with him; I had not heard the
music of the dice for a month, and the temptation was
irresistible. But I was not satisfied. I called the mains and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: and the Scarecrow was leaning against a form that he had mistaken for
a copper statue when a harsh, metallic voice said suddenly in his ear:
"Get off my foot, please. You are scratch-ing my pol-ish."
"Oh, excuse me!" he replied, hastily drawing back. "Are you alive?"
"No," said Tiktok, "I am on-ly a ma-chine. But I can think and speak
and act, when I am pro-per-ly wound up. Just now my ac-tion is run
down, and Dor-o-thy has the key to it."
"That's all right," replied the Scarecrow. Dorothy will soon be free,
and then she'll attend to your works. But it must be a great
misfortune not to be alive. I'm sorry for you."
"Why?" asked Tiktok.
Ozma of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: liberty. This comes from ignorance of Christian faith and
liberty.
This ignorance and this crushing of liberty are diligently
promoted by the teaching of very many blind pastors, who stir up
and urge the people to a zeal for these things, praising them and
puffing them up with their indulgences, but never teaching faith.
Now I would advise you, if you have any wish to pray, to fast, or
to make foundations in churches, as they call it, to take care
not to do so with the object of gaining any advantage, either
temporal or eternal. You will thus wrong your faith, which alone
bestows all things on you, and the increase of which, either by
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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 King James Bible: be my people.
LEV 26:13 I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the
land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken
the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.
LEV 26:14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these
commandments;
LEV 26:15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my
judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break
my covenant:
LEV 26:16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you
terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes,
King James Bible |
