| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Anthem by Ayn Rand: gold of the sky. The moss is soft and warm.
We shall sleep on this moss for many nights,
till the beasts of the forest come to
tear our body. We have no bed now, save
the moss, and no future, save the beasts.
We are old now, yet we were young this
morning, when we carried our glass box
through the streets of the City to the Home
of the Scholars. No men stopped us, for
there were none about from the Palace of
Corrective Detention, and the others knew
Anthem |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: his web. He made his villainy sharp as any razor and did
cunningly prepare his drugs. Now behold this malicious device
and suggestion of the evil one. "Remove, O king," said he, "all
thy son's waiting men and servants far from him, and order that
comely damsels, of exceeding beauty, and bedizened to be the more
winsome, be continually with him and minister to him, and be his
companions day and night. For myself, I will send him one of the
spirits told off for such duties, and I will thus kindle all the
more fiercely the coals of sensual desire. After that he hath
once only had intercourse with but one of these women, if all go
not as thou wilt, then disdain me for ever, as unprofitable, and
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: "Half-past eight, Sunday, breakfast at nine--time for the bath"--his brain
ticked to the watch. He sprang out of bed and went over to the window.
The venetian blind was broken, hung fan-shaped over the upper pane..."That
blind must be mended. I'll get the office boy to drop in and fix it on his
way home to-morrow--he's a good hand at blinds. Give him twopence and
he'll do it as well as a carpenter...Anna could do it herself if she was
all right. So would I, for the matter of that, but I don't like to trust
myself on rickety step-ladders." He looked up at the sky: it shone,
strangely white, unflecked with cloud; he looked down at the row of garden
strips and backyards. The fence of these gardens was built along the edge
of a gully, spanned by an iron suspension bridge, and the people had a
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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 St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: Hunters' Tryst a frequent resort. They told me I had intruded on
an 'all-night sitting,' following upon an 'all-day Saturday tramp'
of forty miles; and that the members would all be up and 'as right
as ninepence' for the noonday service at some neighbouring church -
Collingwood, if memory serves me right. At this I could have
laughed, but the moment seemed ill-chosen. For, though six feet
was their standard, they all exceeded that measurement
considerably; and I tasted again some of the sensations of
childhood, as I looked up to all these lads from a lower plane, and
wondered what they would do next. But the Six-Footers, if they
were very drunk, proved no less kind. The landlord and servants of
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