| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: never pronounced but with a subdued voice, such was the terror
inspired by his Gray Eminence, as the cardinal's familiar was
called.
Throwing down his spit, and ordering his wife to do the same with
her broom handle, and the servants with their sticks, he set the
first example of commencing an earnest search for the lost
letter.
"Does the letter contain anything valuable?" demanded the host,
after a few minutes of useless investigation.
"Zounds! I think it does indeed!" cried the Gascon, who reckoned
upon this letter for making his way at court. "It contained my
The Three Musketeers |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: that city was destroyed by them of Greece, and little appeareth
thereof, because it is so long sith it was destroyed.
About Greece there be many isles, as Calliste, Calcas, Oertige,
Tesbria, Mynia, Flaxon, Melo, Carpate, and Lemnos. And in this
isle is the mount Athos, that passeth the clouds. And there be
many diverse languages and many countries, that be obedient to the
emperor; that is to say, Turcople, Pyncynard, Comange, and many
other, as Thrace and Macedonia, of the which Alexander was king.
In this country was Aristotle born, in a city that men clepe
Stagyra, a little from the city of Thrace. And at Stagyra lieth
Aristotle; and there is an altar upon his tomb. And there make men
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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 The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: grasped at the time: "You haven't been married long enough to
understand how trifling such things seem in the balance of one's
memories."
Here were two people who had penetrated farther than she into
the labyrinth of the wedded state, and struggled through some of
its thorniest passages; and yet both, one consciously, the other
half-unaware, testified to the mysterious fact which was already
dawning on her: that the influence of a marriage begun in
mutual understanding is too deep not to reassert itself even in
the moment of flight and denial.
"The real reason is that you're not Nick" was what she would
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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 The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: foolish-looking things you ever saw, and they balanced on the ends
of their tails in deep water when they weren't grazing, bowing
solemnly to each other and waving their front flippers as a fat
man waves his arm.
"Ahem!" said Kotick. "Good sport, gentlemen?" The big things
answered by bowing and waving their flippers like the Frog
Footman. When they began feeding again Kotick saw that their
upper lip was split into two pieces that they could twitch apart
about a foot and bring together again with a whole bushel of
seaweed between the splits. They tucked the stuff into their
mouths and chumped solemnly.
The Jungle Book |
