| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: understand that you have no need of insurance for yourself; but,
Monsieur, you might induce others to insure, either because of their
inherent qualities which need development, or for the protection of
their families against a precarious future. Now, if you will subscribe
to the 'Globe,' and give me your personal assistance in this district
on behalf of insurance, especially life-annuity,--for the provinces
are much attached to annuities--Well, if you will do this, then we can
come to an understanding about the wine. Will you take the 'Globe'?"
"I stand on the globe."
"Will you advance its interests in this district?"
"I advance."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: was from the woman you saw with the babe. Her speed had faltered
under the weight of her child and her chains; that gash on her
shoulder tells her to move on. Follow this drove to New Orleans.
Attend the auction; see men examined like horses; see the forms
of women rudely and brutally exposed to the shocking gaze of
American slave-buyers. See this drove sold and separated
forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that
scattered multitude. Tell me, citizens, where, under the sun,
can you witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. Yet this
is but a glance at the American slave trade, as it exists at this
moment, in the ruling part of the United States.
My Bondage and My Freedom |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Bucky O'Connor by William MacLeod Raine: unconquerable spirit. "You came pretty near making a clean
round-up, sheriff. I'm the fourth to be put out of business.
You'd ought to be content with that. Let York here go."
"I can't do that, but I'll do my best to see he gets off light."
"I got him into this, sheriff. He was all right before he knew
me. I want him to get a chance now. "
"I wish I could give him a pardon, but I can't do it. I'll see
the governor for him though."
The wounded man spoke to Collins alone for a few minutes, then
began to wander in his mind He babbled feebly of childhood days
back in his Kentucky home. The word most often on his lips was
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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 Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: it from the stoep.
Very silently the great wagon rolled along the grass-covered plain. The
driver on the front box did not clap his whip or call to his oxen, and
Gregory sat beside him with folded arms. Behind them, in the closed wagon,
she lay with the dog at her feet, very quiet, with folded hands. He,
Gregory, dared not be in there. Like Hagar, when she laid her treasure
down in the wilderness, he sat afar off:--"For Hagar said, Let me not see
the death of the child."
Evening came, and yet the blue mountain was not reached, and all the next
day they rode on slowly, but still it was far off. Only at evening they
reached it; not blue now, but low and brown, covered with long waving
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