Today's Stichomancy for Wassily Kandinsky

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Tanach:

Psalms 35: 18 I will give Thee thanks in the great congregation; I will praise Thee among a numerous people.

Psalms 35: 19 Let not them that are wrongfully mine enemies rejoice over me; neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.

Psalms 35: 20 For they speak not peace; but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land.

Psalms 35: 21 Yea, they open their mouth wide against me; they say: 'Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it.'

Psalms 35: 22 Thou hast seen, O LORD; keep not silence; O Lord, be not far from me.

Psalms 35: 23 Rouse Thee, and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord.

Psalms 35: 24 Judge me, O LORD my God, according to Thy righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me.

Psalms 35: 25 Let them not say in their heart: 'Aha, we have our desire'; let them not say: 'We have swallowed him up.'

Psalms 35: 26 Let them be ashamed and abashed together that rejoice at my hurt; let them be clothed with shame and confusion that magnify themselves against me.

Psalms 35: 27 Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that delight in my righteousness; yea, let them say continually: 'Magnified be the LORD, who delighteth in the peace of His servant.'

Psalms 35: 28 And my tongue shall speak of Thy righteousness, and of Thy praise all the day.

The Tanach

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Poems by Oscar Wilde:

Will never know of what I try to sing, How long the last kiss was, how fond and late his lingering.

The moon was girdled with a crystal rim, The sign which shipmen say is ominous Of wrath in heaven, the wan stars were dim, And the low lightening east was tremulous With the faint fluttering wings of flying dawn, Ere from the silent sombre shrine his lover had withdrawn.

Down the steep rock with hurried feet and fast Clomb the brave lad, and reached the cave of Pan, And heard the goat-foot snoring as he passed,

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn:

toward the place of the white gleam, behind the great trees.

--"No, no, no! my darling!" cried Carmen, appalled herself by the ghastly question,--"your mamma is with the dear, good, loving God, who lives in the beautiful sky, above the clouds, my darling, beyond the sun!"

But Carmen's kind eyes were full of tears; and the child read their meaning. He who teareth off the Mask of the Flesh had looked into her face one unutterable moment:--she had seen the brutal Truth, naked to the bone!

Yet there came to her a little thrill of consolation, caused by the words of the tender falsehood; for that which she had

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 Euthydemus by Plato:

knowledge about which you have been doubting, or shall I prove that you already have it?

What, I said, are you blessed with such a power as this?

Indeed I am.

Then I would much rather that you should prove me to have such a knowledge; at my time of life that will be more agreeable than having to learn.

Then tell me, he said, do you know anything?

Yes, I said, I know many things, but not anything of much importance.

That will do, he said: And would you admit that anything is what it is, and at the same time is not what it is?

Certainly not.