Today's Stichomancy for Shakira

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Poems of Goethe, Bowring, Tr. by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:

Oh! what a joyous awak'ning, ye hours so peaceful, succeeded,

Monument sweet of the bliss which had first rock'd us to sleep In her slumber she moves, and sinks, while her face is averted,

Far on the breadth of the couch, leaving her hand still in mine Heartfelt love unites us for ever, and yearnings unsullied,

And our cravings alone claim for themselves the exchange. One faint touch of the hand, and her eyes so heavenly see I

Once more open. Ah, no! let me still look on that form! Closed still remain! Ye make me confused and drunken, ye rob me

Far too soon of the bliss pure contemplation affords. Mighty, indeed, are these figures! these limbs, how gracefully rounded!

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson:

grew together, healthy, happy, and happy-making, as though rooted in a fathom of black soil.

Nor was it only vegetable life that prospered. We had, indeed, few birds, and none that had much of a voice or anything worthy to be called a song. My morning comrade had a thin chirp, unmusical and monotonous, but friendly and pleasant to hear. He had but one rival: a fellow with an ostentatious cry of near an octave descending, not one note of which properly followed another. This is the only bird I ever knew with a wrong ear; but there was something enthralling about his performance. You listened and

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare:

And so she shall: Lucentio shall make one, Though Paris came in hope to speed alone.

GREMIO. What!this gentleman will out-talk us all.

LUCENTIO. Sir, give him head; I know he'll prove a jade.

PETRUCHIO. Hortensio, to what end are all these words?

HORTENSIO. Sir, let me be so bold as ask you, Did you yet ever see Baptista's daughter?

The Taming of the Shrew

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 The Tanach:

Numbers 3: 5 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying:

Numbers 3: 6 'Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister unto him.

Numbers 3: 7 And they shall keep his charge, and the charge of the whole congregation before the tent of meeting, to do the service of the tabernacle.

Numbers 3: 8 And they shall keep all the furniture of the tent of meeting, and the charge of the children of Israel, to do the service of the tabernacle.

Numbers 3: 9 And thou shalt give the Levites unto Aaron and to his sons; they are wholly given unto him from the children of Israel.

Numbers 3: 10 And thou shalt appoint Aaron and his sons, that they may keep their priesthood; and the common man that draweth nigh shall be put to death.'

Numbers 3: 11 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying:

Numbers 3: 12 'And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of every first-born that openeth the womb among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be Mine;

Numbers 3: 13 for all the first-born are Mine: on the day that I smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto Me all the first-born in Israel, both man and beast, Mine they shall be: I am the LORD.'

The Tanach