| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rig Veda: Agni, to him be a self-strong Protector guard him from all
who seek to
do him mischief.
7 Who brings thee food, though thou hast food in plenty, welcomes
his
cheerful guest and speeds him onward,
Who kindles thee devoutly in his dwelling,to him be wealth
secure and
freely giving.
8 Whoso sings praise to thee at eve or morning, and, with oblation,
doth the thing thou lovest,-
The Rig Veda |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: there are worse men than he is yet!'
'He's not a human being,' she retorted; 'and he has no claim on my
charity. I gave him my heart, and he took and pinched it to death,
and flung it back to me. People feel with their hearts, Ellen:
and since he has destroyed mine, I have not power to feel for him:
and I would not, though he groaned from this to his dying day, and
wept tears of blood for Catherine! No, indeed, indeed, I
wouldn't!' And here Isabella began to cry; but, immediately
dashing the water from her lashes, she recommenced. 'You asked,
what has driven me to flight at last? I was compelled to attempt
it, because I had succeeded in rousing his rage a pitch above his
Wuthering Heights |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Death of the Lion by Henry James: I've nothing but my acrimony to warm me, and have been out under an
umbrella to restore my circulation. Coming in an hour ago I found
Lady Augusta Minch rummaging about the hall. When I asked her what
she was looking for she said she had mislaid something that Mr.
Paraday had lent her. I ascertained in a moment that the article
in question is a manuscript, and I've a foreboding that it's the
noble morsel he read me six weeks ago. When I expressed my
surprise that he should have bandied about anything so precious (I
happen to know it's his only copy - in the most beautiful hand in
all the world) Lady Augusta confessed to me that she hadn't had it
from himself, but from Mrs. Wimbush, who had wished to give her a
|
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 Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: sometimes I do not go in; I remain near the door, and listen.
How can she humiliate herself and humiliate me by placing me in
this cowardly situation of suspicion and espionage? Oh,
abomination! Oh, the wicked animal! And he too, what does he
think of you? But he is like all men. He is what I was before
my marriage. It gives him pleasure. He even smiles when he
looks at me, as much as to say: 'What have you to do with this?
It is my turn now.'
"This feeling is horrible. Its burn is unendurable. To
entertain this feeling toward any one, to once suspect a man of
lusting after my wife, was enough to spoil this man forever in my
The Kreutzer Sonata |
