| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: and the ancient Etruscans the same.[4]
[1] R. P. Knight's Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 21.
[2] See Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi, p. 176,
where it is said "an ambassador was sent from heaven on an
embassy to a Virgin of Tulan, called Chimalman . . . announcing
that it was the will of the God that she should conceive a son;
and having delivered her the message he rose and left the house;
and as soon as he had left it she conceived a son, without
connection with man, who was called Quetzalcoat], who they say is
the god of air." Further, it is explained that Quetzalcoatl
sacrificed himself, drawing forth his own blood with thorns; and
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: behind as he had seen given to the poor black man.
So he ran on like one in a nightmare. His feet grew heavy like
lead, he panted and gasped, his breath came hot and dry in his
throat. But still he ran and ran until at last he found himself
in front of old Matt Abrahamson's cabin, gasping, panting, and
sobbing for breath, his knees relaxed and his thighs trembling
with weakness.
As he opened the door and dashed into the darkened cabin (for
both Matt and Molly were long ago asleep in bed) there was a
flash of light, and even as he slammed to the door behind him
there was an instant peal of thunder, heavy as though a great
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: the mouth speaks." Is that speaking with a German tongue? What
German could understand something like that? What is this
"abundance of the heart?" No German can say that; unless, of
course, he was trying to say that someone was altogether too
magnanimous, or too courageous, though even that would not yet be
correct, as "abundance of the heart" is not German, not any more
than "abundance of the house, "abundance of the stove" or
"abundance of the bench" is German. But the mother in the home
and the common man say this: "What fills the heart overflows the
mouth." That is speaking with the proper German tongue of the
kind I have tried for, although unfortunately not always
|
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 Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: and they applied violent drawing-plaisters or poultices to break them,
and if these did not do they cut and scarified them in a terrible
manner. In some those swellings were made hard partly by the force
of the distemper and partly by their being too violently drawn, and
were so hard that no instrument could cut them, and then they burnt
them with caustics, so that many died raving mad with the torment,
and some in the very operation. In these distresses, some, for want of
help to hold them down in their beds, or to look to them, laid hands
upon themselves as above. Some broke out into the streets, perhaps
naked, and would run directly down to the river if they were not
stopped by the watchman or other officers, and plunge themselves
A Journal of the Plague Year |
