| 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: their genesis through the in-break of self-consciousness
upon the corporate SUB-consciousness of the life of the
Community. But an exactly similar process may be observed
in the case of the other religious ideas.
I spoke of the doctrine of the SECOND BIRTH, and the rites
connected with it both in Paganism and in Christianity.
There is much to show that among quite primitive peoples
there is less of shrinking from death and more of certainty
about a continued life after death than we generally find
among more intellectual and civilized folk. It is, or has
been, quite, common among many tribes for the old 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 The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: Was this a lover, or a lecher whether?
Bad in the best, though excellent in neither.
VIII.
If music and sweet poetry agree,
As they must needs, the sister and the brother,
Then must the love be great 'twixt thee and me,
Because thou lovest the one, and I the other.
Dowland to thee is dear, whose heavenly touch
Upon the lute doth ravish human sense;
Spenser to me, whose deep conceit is such
As, passing all conceit, needs no defence.
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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 One Basket by Edna Ferber: hand-- a capable, firm, steadying hand--on the arm of each. The
woman drew back, but the boy did not.
"Will you promise me not to do anything for a week? Just a
week! Will you promise me? Will you?"
"Are you going to tell Father?"
"Not for a week, if you'll promise not to see each other in that
week. No, I don't want to send you away, Julia, I don't want to.
. . . You're not a bad girl. It's just--he's never had--at home
they never gave him a chance. Just a week, Julia. Just a week,
Eugene. We can talk things over then."
Adele's footsteps coming from the kitchen.
One Basket |
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 Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: egg and then at the old woman, occasionally contemplating his future
master.
Louis XI.'s silversmith resembled that monarch. He had even acquired
the same gestures, as often happens where persons dwell together in a
sort of intimacy. The thick eyebrows of the Fleming almost covered his
eyes; but by raising them a little he could flash out a lucid,
penetrating, powerful glance, the glance of men habituated to silence,
and to whom the phenomenon of the concentration of inward forces has
become familiar. His thin lips, vertically wrinkled, gave him an air
of indescribable craftiness. The lower part of his face bore a vague
resemblance to the muzzle of a fox, but his lofty, projecting
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