| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: Then Madeline heard her come into the house and presently rap on
the door and call softly:
"Miss Hammond. Are you awake?"
"Awake and dressed, Miss Kingsley. Come in."
"Oh! You've rested. You look so--so different. I'm sure glad.
Come out now. We'll have breakfast, and then you may expect to
meet your brother any moment."
"Wait, please. I heard you speaking to Mr. Stewart. It was
unavoidable. But I am glad. I must see him. Will you please
ask him to come into the parlor a moment?"
"Yes," replied Florence, quickly; and as she turned at the door
The Light of Western Stars |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald: She looked at him dreamily.
"Beauty and love pass, I know.... Oh, there's sadness, too. I
suppose all great happiness is a little sad. Beauty means the
scent of roses and then the death of roses"
"Beauty means the agony of sacrifice and the end of agony...."
"And, Amory, we're beautiful, I know. I'm sure God loves us"
"He loves you. You're his most precious possession."
"I'm not his, I'm yours. Amory, I belong to you. For the first
time I regret all the other kisses; now I know how much a kiss
can mean."
Then they would smoke and he would tell her about his day at the
This Side of Paradise |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from King James Bible: SA1 22:18 And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the
priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and
slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod.
SA1 22:19 And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of
the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen, and
asses, and sheep, with the edge of the sword.
SA1 22:20 And one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named
Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David.
SA1 22:21 And Abiathar shewed David that Saul had slain the LORD's
priests.
SA1 22:22 And David said unto Abiathar, I knew it that day, when Doeg
King James Bible |
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 De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: no one deserved anything. Or perhaps they were a different kind of
people. Christ had no patience with the dull lifeless mechanical
systems that treat people as if they were things, and so treat
everybody alike: for him there were no laws: there were
exceptions merely, as if anybody, or anything, for that matter, was
like aught else in the world!
That which is the very keynote of romantic art was to him the
proper basis of natural life. He saw no other basis. And when
they brought him one, taken in the very act of sin and showed him
her sentence written in the law, and asked him what was to be done,
he wrote with his finger on the ground as though he did not hear
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