| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: everything, whether past or to come. While Jason was gazing at
her, a peacock strutted forward, and took his stand at the old
woman's side.
"I am going to Iolchos," answered the young man, "to bid the
wicked King Pelias come down from my father's throne, and let
me reign in his stead."
"Ah, well, then," said the old woman, still with the same
cracked voice, "if that is all your business, you need not be
in a very great hurry. Just take me on your back, there's a
good youth, and carry me across the river. I and my peacock
have something to do on the other side, as well as yourself."
Tanglewood Tales |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Summer by Edith Wharton: want," she answered.
"That so?" He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment
and his eye-brows projected in a scowl. Then his face
grew friendly again. "Well, I wanted you to go back
looking stylisher than any of them; but I guess you're
right. You're a good girl, Charity."
Their eyes met, and something rose in his that she
had never seen there: a look that made her feel ashamed
and yet secure.
"I guess you're good, too," she said, shyly and
quickly. He smiled without answering, and they went
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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 Fantastic Fables by Ambrose Bierce: "With fortitude, please God," answered the Assistant Pocketer, his
eyes to Heaven raising - "with fortitude and a firm reliance on the
laxity of the law."
"Enough, enough," exclaimed the faithful servant of the State,
choking with emotion; "here is a certificate of solvency."
"And here is a bottle of ink," the grateful financier said,
slipping it into the other's pocket; "it is all that we have."
The Cat and the King
A CAT was looking at a King, as permitted by the proverb.
"Well," said the monarch, observing her inspection of the royal
person, "how do you like me?"
Fantastic Fables |
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 The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: fever. It had at first not been thought grave, but had taken, in
consequence of complications, a turn that might give rise to
anxiety. Anxiety had indeed at the latest hour begun to be felt.
I was struck in the presence of these tidings with the fundamental
detachment that Mrs. Corvick's overt concern quite failed to hide:
it gave me the measure of her consummate independence. That
independence rested on her knowledge, the knowledge which nothing
now could destroy and which nothing could make different. The
figure in the carpet might take on another twist or two, but the
sentence had virtually been written. The writer might go down to
his grave: she was the person in the world to whom - as if she had
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