| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: "Louis," she continued, "swear to me, as I lie here, that you will
forget all that you have written, all that I have told you."
"Yes, mother."
"Kiss me, dear angel."
She was silent for a long while, she seemed to be drawing strength
from God, and to be measuring her words by the life that remained in
her.
"Listen," she began. "Those twelve thousand francs are all that you
have in the world. You must keep the money upon you, because when I am
dead the lawyers will come and seal everything up. Nothing will be
yours then, not even your mother. All that remains for you to do will
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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 Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: name, was working in the forest near the Roman Road, and at
twelve o'clock his little son, Trevor, brought the man his
dinner of bread and cheese. After the meal, the boy, who was
about seven years old at the time, left his father at work,
and, as he said, went to look for flowers in the wood, and the
man, who could hear him shouting with delight at his
discoveries, felt no uneasiness. Suddenly, however, he was
horrified at hearing the most dreadful screams, evidently the
result of great terror, proceeding from the direction in which
his son had gone, and he hastily threw down his tools and ran
to see what had happened. Tracing his path by the sound, he
The Great God Pan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: work within him.
As long as he remained in the boat which conveyed him to land, he kept
his face toward Milady, who, standing on the deck, followed him with her
eyes. Both were free from the fear of pursuit; nobody ever came into
Milady's apartment before nine o'clock, and it would require three hours
to go from the castle to London.
Felton jumped onshore, climbed the little ascent which led to the top of
the cliff, saluted Milady a last time, and took his course toward the
city.
At the end of a hundred paces, the ground began to decline, and he could
only see the mast of the sloop.
The Three Musketeers |
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 1492 by Mary Johntson: a god dying there. Their own canoes were living things to
them as is any ship to a mariner, and by analogy our great
canoe was a Being dying, more of a Being than theirs, because
it had wings and could open and fold them. And
then back came our boat with Diego de Arana and the others,
and they had with them that same brother of the cacique who
had come to us in St. Thomas Harbor. And had we been
wrecked off Palos, not Palos could have showed more concern
or been more ready to help than were these men.
We had three boats and the Indian canoes and hands
enough, white and copper-hued. Now at low tide, we could
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