The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Koran: harmed in my way, and who fought and were killed, I will cover their
offences, and I will make them enter into gardens beneath which rivers
flow.' A reward from God; for God, with Him are the best of rewards.
Let it not deceive you that those who misbelieve go to and fro in
the earth. It is a slight possession, and then their resort is Hell;
an evil couch shall it be. But those who fear their Lord, for them are
gardens beneath which rivers flow, and they shall dwell therein for
aye,- an entertainment from God; and that which is with God is best
for the righteous.
Verily, of the people of the Book are some who do believe in God,
and in what has been revealed to you, and what was revealed to them,
The Koran |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: asserting that all the stories of lovely women held in bondage
by monsters, and rescued by heroes who perform wonderful
tasks, such as Don Quixote burned to achieve, are derived
ultimately from solar myths, like the myth of Sigurd and
Brynhild. I do not mean to say that the story-tellers who
beguiled their time in stringing together the incidents which
make up these legends were conscious of their solar character.
They did not go to work, with malice prepense, to weave
allegories and apologues. The Greeks who first told the story
of Perseus and Andromeda, the Arabians who devised the tale of
Codadad and his brethren, the Flemings who listened over their
Myths and Myth-Makers |