| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Koran: astray without knowledge.- Aye! an ill burden shall they bear.
Those who were before them devised a stratagem, but God brought
their building off its foundations, and the roof fell over them, and
the torment came to them, from whence they could not perceive.
Then on the resurrection day He will put them to shame, and say,
'Where are your associates whom ye divided into parties about?'
Those to whom knowledge is brought will say, 'Verily, disgrace to-day,
and evil are upon the misbelievers!'
Those whom the angels took away were wronging themselves; then
they offered peace: 'We have done no evil.'- 'Yea! verily, God knows
what ye did. Wherefore enter ye the doors of hell, to dwell therein
The Koran |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: human faces; when these resources failed him, he fell back on
the belated baked-potato man; and at length, still pacing the
streets, he was goaded to fraternise with the police. Alas,
with what a sense of guilt he conversed with these guardians
of the law; how gladly had he wept upon their ample bosoms;
and how the secret fluttered to his lips and was still denied
an exit! Fatigue began at last to triumph over remorse; and
about the hour of the first milkman, he returned to the door
of the mansion; looked at it with a horrid expectation, as
though it should have burst that instant into flames; drew
out his key, and when his foot already rested on the steps,
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: feats of mischief ascribed to these evil beings. On this moor
she used to hold her revels with her sister hags; and rings were
still pointed out on which no grass nor heath ever grew, the turf
being, as it were, calcined by the scorching hoofs of their
diabolical partners.
Once upon a time this old hag is said to have crossed the moor,
driving before her a flock of geese, which she proposed to sell
to advantage at a neighbouring fair;--for it is well known that
the fiend, however liberal in imparting his powers of doing
mischief, ungenerously leaves his allies under the necessity of
performing the meanest rustic labours for subsistence. The day
|
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 Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum: with hesitation, "You are very kind, but there must be some mistake.
I have not killed anything."
"Your house did, anyway," replied the little old woman, with a
laugh, "and that is the same thing. See!" she continued, pointing
to the corner of the house. "There are her two feet, still sticking
out from under a block of wood."
Dorothy looked, and gave a little cry of fright. There, indeed,
just under the corner of the great beam the house rested on, two feet
were sticking out, shod in silver shoes with pointed toes.
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried Dorothy, clasping her hands together
in dismay. "The house must have fallen on her. Whatever shall we do?"
The Wizard of Oz |
