Today's Stichomancy for Nick Cave

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The War in the Air by H. G. Wells:

Hohenzollern and its widow's garment of dishevelled silk for a time, but without any idea of its containing any living thing; it was all so twisted and smashed and entirely upside down. Then for a while he gazed at the evening sky. A cloud haze was now appearing and not an airship was in sight. A swallow flew by and snapped some invisible victim. "Like a dream," he repeated.

Then for a time the rapids held his mind. "Roaring. It keeps on roaring and splashin' always and always. Keeps on...."

At last his interests became personal. "Wonder what I ought to do now?"

He reflected. "Not an idee," he said.

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

XXXIV. TO MY OLD FAMILIARS - Do you remember - can we e'er forget? XXXV. The tropics vanish, and meseems that I XXXVI. TO S. C. - I heard the pulse of the besieging sea XXXVII. THE HOUSE OF TEMBINOKA - Let us, who part like brothers, part like bards XXXVIII. THE WOODMAN - In all the grove, not stream nor bird XXXIX. TROPIC RAIN - As the single pang of the blow, when the metal is mingled well XL. AN END OF TRAVEL - Let now your soul in this substantial world XLI. We uncommiserate pass into the night XLII. Sing me a song of a lad that is gone

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass:

was a failure on my part, one Saturday night, to pay him for my week's time. This failure was occasioned by my attending a camp meeting about ten miles from Baltimore. During the week, I had entered into an engagement with a number of young friends to start from Baltimore to the camp ground early Saturday evening; and being detained by my em- ployer, I was unable to get down to Master Hugh's without disappointing the company. I knew that Master Hugh was in no special need of the money that night. I therefore decided to go to camp meet-

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave

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 Confessio Amantis by John Gower:

It was fantosme, bot yit he herde The vois, and he therto ansuerde, "What wiht art thou in goddes name?" "I am," quod Adrian, "the same, Whos good thou schalt have evene half." Quod Bardus, "Thanne a goddes half The thridde time assaie I schal": And caste his corde forth withal Into the pet, and whan it cam To him, this lord of Rome it nam, 5020 And therupon him hath adresced,

Confessio Amantis