| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: She heard it in the hall, and then she looked out of the window.
They were all coming back from church--her father, her sister and brother,
and their cousins, who always came to dinner on Sunday. Mr. Brand had come
in first; he was in advance of the others, because, apparently, he was
still disposed to say what she had not wished him to say an hour before.
He came into the parlor, looking for Gertrude. He had two little
books in his hand. On seeing Gertrude's companion he slowly stopped,
looking at him.
"Is this a cousin?" asked Felix.
Then Gertrude saw that she must introduce him; but her ears, and,
by sympathy, her lips, were full of all that he had been telling her.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Koran: Sho'haib a liar, they were the losers then! And he turned away from
them and said, 'O my people! I preached to you the messages of my
Lord, and I gave you 'good advice; how should I be vexed for a
people who do misbelieve?
We have not sent unto a city any prophet except we overtook the
people thereof with trouble and distress, that haply they might humble
themselves; and then did we give them, in exchange for evil, good,
until they increased and said, 'Distress and joy both touched our
fathers;' then we overtook them suddenly ere they could perceive.- Had
the people of the town but believed and feared, we would have opened
up for them blessings from the heavens and from the earth; but they
The Koran |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Night and Day by Virginia Woolf: invisible ghost among the living, better acquainted with them than
with her own friends, because she knew their secrets and possessed a
divine foreknowledge of their destiny. They had been so unhappy, such
muddlers, so wrong-headed, it seemed to her. She could have told them
what to do, and what not to do. It was a melancholy fact that they
would pay no heed to her, and were bound to come to grief in their own
antiquated way. Their behavior was often grotesquely irrational; their
conventions monstrously absurd; and yet, as she brooded upon them, she
felt so closely attached to them that it was useless to try to pass
judgment upon them. She very nearly lost consciousness that she was a
separate being, with a future of her own. On a morning of slight
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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 The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: souls, and only through fear of the end of the world put up
candles and had services said for them, to be on the safe side.
The peasants who were rather poorer were not afraid of death. The
old father and Granny were told to their faces that they had
lived too long, that it was time they were dead, and they did not
mind. They did not hinder Fyokla from saying in Nikolay's
presence that when Nikolay died her husband Denis would get
exemption -- to return home from the army. And Marya, far from
fearing death, regretted that it was so slow in coming, and was
glad when her children died.
Death they did not fear, but of every disease they had an
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