| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: Spirits of ultimate air and the evil souls of things;
The souls of the dead, the stranglers, that perch in the trees of the wood,
Waiters for all things human, haters of evil and good."
"Rua, behold me, kiss me, look in my eyes and read;
Are these the eyes of a maid that would leave her lover in need?
Brave in the eye of day, my father ruled in the fight;
The child of his loins, Taheia, will play the man in the night."
So it was spoken, and so agreed, and Taheia arose
And smiled in the stars and was gone, swift as the swallow goes;
And Rua stood on the hill, and sighed, and followed her flight,
And there were the lodges below, each with its door alight;
Ballads |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: futuros Helvetios ubi eos Caesar constituisset atque esse voluisset; sin
bello persequi perseveraret, reminisceretur et veteris incommodi populi
Romani et pristinae virtutis Helvetiorum. Quod improviso unum pagum
adortus esset, cum ii qui flumen transissent suis auxilium ferre non
possent, ne ob eam rem aut suae magnopere virtuti tribueret aut ipsos
despiceret. Se ita a patribus maioribusque suis didicisse, ut magis
virtute contenderent quam dolo aut insidiis niterentur. Quare ne
committeret ut is locus ubi constitissent ex calamitate populi Romani et
internecione exercitus nomen caperet aut memoriam proderet.
His Caesar ita respondit: eo sibi minus dubitationis dari, quod eas
res quas legati Helvetii commemorassent memoria teneret, atque eo gravius
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Octopus by Frank Norris: that young Annixter. He gets a price for his stubble, which else
he would have to burn, and also manures his land as the sheep
move from place to place. A true Yankee, that Annixter, a good
gringo."
After his meal, Presley once more mounted his bicycle, and
leaving the restaurant and the Plaza behind him, held on through
the main street of the drowsing town--the street that farther on
developed into the road which turned abruptly northward and led
onward through the hop-fields and the Quien Sabe ranch toward the
Mission of San Juan.
The Home ranch of the Quien Sabe was in the little triangle
|
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 Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: and returned to his wheel.
What occasion there was to be dod derned about it is a thing
which is still as much of a mystery to me now as it was then.
It must have been all of fifteen minutes--fifteen minutes
of dull, homesick silence--before that long horse-face
swung round upon me again--and then, what a change!
It was as red as fire, and every muscle in it was working.
Now came this shriek--
'Here!--You going to set there all day?'
I lit in the middle of the floor, shot there by the electric
suddenness of the surprise. As soon as I could get my voice I said,
|
