| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: spectacular display [deceptions, absurdities, and appearances]
of unchristian [heathenish] parade and pomp. But because they
neither are, nor wish to be, true bishops, but worldly lords
and princes, who will neither preach, nor teach, nor baptize,
nor administer the Lord's Supper, nor perform any work or
office of the Church, and, moreover, persecute and condemn
those who discharge these functions, having been called to do
so, the Church ought not on their account to remain without
ministers [to be forsaken by or deprived of ministers].
Therefore, as the ancient examples of the Church and the
Fathers teach us, we ourselves will and ought to ordain
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: chance. There were eternal problems: suffering; death; the poor. There
was always a woman dying of cancer even here. And yet she had said to
all these children, You shall go through it all. To eight people she
had said relentlessly that (and the bill for the greenhouse would be
fifty pounds). For that reason, knowing what was before them--love and
ambition and being wretched alone in dreary places--she had often the
feeling, Why must they grow up and lose it all? And then she said to
herself, brandishing her sword at life, Nonsense. They will be
perfectly happy. And here she was, she reflected, feeling life rather
sinister again, making Minta marry Paul Rayley; because whatever she
might feel about her own transaction, she had had experiences which
To the Lighthouse |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: my first name. Some calls me Sarah, some calls me
Mary."
"Oh, that's the way of it?"
"Yes'm."
I was feeling better then, but I wished I was out of
there, anyway. I couldn't look up yet.
Well, the woman fell to talking about how hard
times was, and how poor they had to live, and how the
rats was as free as if they owned the place, and so
forth and so on, and then I got easy again. She was
right about the rats. You'd see one stick his nose out
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
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 Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: shoulders with all sorts of people in the green-room; whom an actor
kisses on stage; she must lower herself before the public, smile on
every one, lift her skirts as she dances, and dress like a man, that
all the world may see what none should see save I alone. Or if I loved
such a woman, she should leave the stage, and my love should cleanse
her from the stain of it."
"And if she would not leave the stage?"
"I should die of mortification, jealousy, and all sorts of pain. You
cannot pluck love out of your heart as you draw a tooth."
Lucien's face grew dark and thoughtful.
"When they find out that I am tolerating Camusot, how they will
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