| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain: finally, or to an odorless gas which you can't follow --
which, of course, amounts to the same thing. But
here, by good luck, no one's eyes but mine are under
the enchantment, and so it is of no consequence to
dissolve it. These ladies remain ladies to you, and to
themselves, and to everybody else; and at the same
time they will suffer in no way from my delusion, for
when I know that an ostensible hog is a lady, that is
enough for me, I know how to treat her."
"Thanks, oh, sweet my lord, thou talkest like an
angel. And I know that thou wilt deliver them, for
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: nine birds sitting on a cloak. Shoot into the midst of them, and one
will fall down dead: the cloak will fall too; take it, it is a
wishing-cloak, and when you wear it you will find yourself at any
place where you may wish to be. Cut open the dead bird, take out its
heart and keep it, and you will find a piece of gold under your pillow
every morning when you rise. It is the bird's heart that will bring
you this good luck.'
The huntsman thanked her, and thought to himself, 'If all this does
happen, it will be a fine thing for me.' When he had gone a hundred
steps or so, he heard a screaming and chirping in the branches over
him, and looked up and saw a flock of birds pulling a cloak with their
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Koran: 'Make thou coats of mail and adapt the rings thereof, and do right;
verily, I at what ye do do look.' And to Solomon the wind; its morning
journey was a month, and its evening journey was a month; and we
made to flow for him a fountain of molten brass; and of the ginns some
to work before him by the permission of his Lord; and whoso swerves
amongst them from our bidding we will give him to taste the torment
and the blaze; and they made for him what he pleased of chambers,
and images, and dishes like troughs, and firm pots;- work, O ye family
of David! thankfully;- few is it of my servants who are thankful.
And when we decreed for him death, naught guided them to his death
save a reptile of the earth that ate his staff; and when he fell
The Koran |
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 Emma by Jane Austen: to her assistance at this critical moment. The pleasantness
of the morning had induced him to walk forward, and leave his
horses to meet him by another road, a mile or two beyond Highbury--
and happening to have borrowed a pair of scissors the night before
of Miss Bates, and to have forgotten to restore them, he had
been obliged to stop at her door, and go in for a few minutes:
he was therefore later than he had intended; and being on foot,
was unseen by the whole party till almost close to them.
The terror which the woman and boy had been creating in Harriet
was then their own portion. He had left them completely frightened;
and Harriet eagerly clinging to him, and hardly able to speak,
Emma |
