| 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: that is of the morrow, and the day following, and the hereafter.
I became weary of the poets, of the old and of the new: superficial are
they all unto me, and shallow seas.
They did not think sufficiently into the depth; therefore their feeling did
not reach to the bottom.
Some sensation of voluptuousness and some sensation of tedium: these have
as yet been their best contemplation.
Ghost-breathing and ghost-whisking, seemeth to me all the jingle-jangling
of their harps; what have they known hitherto of the fervour of tones!--
They are also not pure enough for me: they all muddle their water that it
may seem deep.
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Selected Writings of Guy De Maupassant by Guy De Maupassant: understand it at all; then suddenly I was seized by such a
terrible feeling that I had to sit down, or rather fall into a
chair! Then I sprang up with a bound to look about me; then I sat
down again, overcome by astonishment and fear, in front of the
transparent crystal bottle! I looked at it with fixed eyes,
trying to solve the puzzle, and my hands trembled! Some body had
drunk the water, but who? I? I without any doubt. It could surely
only be I? In that case I was a somnambulist--was living, without
knowing it, that double, mysterious life which makes us doubt
whether there are not two beings in us--whether a strange,
unknowable, and invisible being does not, during our moments of
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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 In Darkest England and The Way Out by General William Booth: orders and decorations glittering on his breast, setting an example to
the humblest soldier, he led them into the street, and had scarcely
reached it before a beggar approached wished him a 'Happy New Year,'
and waited for the expected aims. 'I went up to him, says Count Rumford,
'and laying my hand gently on his shoulder, told him that henceforth
begging would not be permitted in Munich; that if he was in need,
assistance would be given him; and if detected begging again, he would
be severely punished.' He was then sent to the Town Hall, his name and
residence inscribed upon the register, and he was directed to repair to
the Military House of Industry next morning, where he would find
dinner, work, and wages. Every officer, every magistrate, every
In Darkest England and The Way Out |
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 A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: semi-arid land between forty and eighty degrees south latitude,
and bounded on the east and west by two large fertile tracts.
Their headquarters lay in the southwest corner of this district,
near the crossing of two of the so-called Martian canals.
As the incubator had been placed far north of their own
territory in a supposedly uninhabited and unfrequented area,
we had before us a tremendous journey, concerning which I,
of course, knew nothing.
After our return to the dead city I passed several days in
comparative idleness. On the day following our return all the
warriors had ridden forth early in the morning and had not
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