| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Baby Mine by Margaret Mayo: tightly behind his neck, and rained impulsive kisses upon his
unsuspecting face.
For an instant, Alfred looked down at Zoie, undecided whether to
strangle her or to return her embraces. As usual, his
self-respect won the day for him and, with a determined effort,
he lifted her high in the air, so that she lost her tenacious
hold of him, and sat her down with a thud in the very same chair
in which she had lately dropped his hat. Having acted with this
admirable resolution, he strode majestically toward the inner
hall, but before he could reach it, Zoie was again on her feet,
in a last vain effort to conciliate him. Turning, Alfred caught
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: the dream of poets, the dream of maidens, the poem which, at the
entrance of life when thought essays its wings, each noble
intellect has pondered and caressed only to see it shivered to
fragments on some stone of stumbling as hard as it is vulgar?--for
to the great majority of men, the foot of reality steps instantly
on that mysterious egg so seldom hatched.
I cannot speak to you any more of myself; not of my past life, nor
of my character, nor of an affection almost maternal on one side,
filial on mine, which you have already seriously changed--an
effect upon my life which must explain my use of the word
"sacrifice." You have already rendered me forgetful, if not
Modeste Mignon |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: grown a brook again. The general course of the brook was, I
guess, S.E.; the valley still very deep and whelmed in wood.
It seemed a swindle to have made so sheer a climb and still
find yourself at the bottom of a well. But gradually the
thing seemed to shallow, the trees to seem poorer and
smaller; I could see more and more of the silver sprinkles of
sky among the foliage, instead of the sombre piling up of
tree behind tree. And here I had two scares - first, away up
on my right hand I heard a bull low; I think it was a bull
from the quality of the low, which was singularly songful and
beautiful; the bulls belong to me, but how did I know that
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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 Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: or not, obliged to keep his promise, and gave his daughter and the
half of his kingdom. Had he known that it was no warlike hero, but a
little tailor who was standing before him, it would have gone to his
heart still more than it did. The wedding was held with great
magnificence and small joy, and out of a tailor a king was made.
After some time the young queen heard her husband say in his dreams at
night: 'Boy, make me the doublet, and patch the pantaloons, or else I
will rap the yard-measure over your ears.' Then she discovered in what
state of life the young lord had been born, and next morning
complained of her wrongs to her father, and begged him to help her to
get rid of her husband, who was nothing else but a tailor. The king
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
