| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: development, which sees in luscious and abundant food an end
worthy of man's best efforts. Now, this is not right and should
not be done. And, in order to avoid doing it, it is only needful
to realize the fact that whatever truly deserves to be held up as
a worthy object of man's striving and working, whether it be the
service of humanity, of one's country, of science, of art, not to
speak of the service of God, is far above and beyond the sphere
of personal enjoyment. Hence, it follows that not only to form a
liaison, but even to contract marriage, is, from a Christian
point of view, not a progress, but a fall. Love, and all the
states that accompany and follow it, however we may try in prose
The Kreutzer Sonata |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: admit their respect for a man so gentle-natured that he loved to
devote his life to pleasing the helpless little ones of his race.
Therefore the inhabitants of every city and village had been eagerly
watching the coming of Claus, and remarkable stories of his beautiful
playthings were told the children to keep them patient and contented.
When, on the morning following the first trip of Claus with his deer,
the little ones came running to their parents with the pretty toys
they had found, and asked from whence they came, they was but one
reply to the question.
"The good Claus must have been here, my darlings; for his are the only
toys in all the world!"
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: daughter opened his shirt and began to wet his head and bosom;
while Northmour and I ran to the window. The weather continued
clear; the moon, which was now about full, had risen and shed a
very clear light upon the links; yet, strain our eyes as we might,
we could distinguish nothing moving. A few dark spots, more or
less, on the uneven expanse were not to be identified; they might
be crouching men, they might be shadows; it was impossible to be
sure.
"Thank God," said Northmour, "Aggie is not coming to-night."
Aggie was the name of the old nurse; he had not thought of her till
now; but that he should think of her at all, was a trait that
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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 Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling: howling, which they would never have done from a Flint-
worker. The man went in among the Trees. I looked for the dead
Beast. He had been killed in a new way - by a single deep, clean
cut, without bruise or tear, which had split his bad heart. Wonderful!
So I saw that the man's knife was magic, and I thought
how to get it, - thought strongly how to get it.
'When I brought the flocks to the shearing, my Mother the
Priestess asked me, "What is the new thing which you have seen
and I see in your face?" I said, "It is a sorrow to me"; and she
answered, "All new things are sorrow. Sit in my place, and eat
sorrow." I sat down in her place by the fire, where she talks to the
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