Today's Stichomancy for Howard Stern
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: Guise, misled by the candor of Christophe's expression after his first
alarm had passed away.
"Yes, monseigneur."
The Grand-master turned aside, abruptly raised the portiere which
concealed the double door of the council-chamber, and showed his face
to the whole assembly, among whom he was searching for the king's
surgeon. Ambroise Pare, standing in a corner, caught a glance which
the duke cast upon him, and immediately advanced. Ambroise, who at
this time was inclined to the reformed religion, eventually adopted
it; but the friendship of the Guises and that of the kings of France
guaranteed him against the evils which overtook his co-religionists.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from New Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: I AM like one that for long days had sate,
With seaward eyes set keen against the gale,
On some lone foreland, watching sail by sail,
The portbound ships for one ship that was late;
And sail by sail, his heart burned up with joy,
And cruelly was quenched, until at last
One ship, the looked-for pennant at its mast,
Bore gaily, and dropt safely past the buoy;
And lo! the loved one was not there - was dead.
Then would he watch no more; no more the sea
With myriad vessels, sail by sail, perplex
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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 Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: like those of CONTACT (say with a menstruous woman,
or a mother-in-law, or a lightning-struck tree) had an obvious
basis of observation, justifiable but very crude; while
others, like the taboo against harming an enemy who
had contracted blood-friendship with one of your own
tribe, or against giving decent burial to a murderer, were
equally rough and rude expressions or indications of the growing
moral sentiment of mankind. All the same there would
be left, in any case, a large residuum of taboos which could
only be judged as senseless, and the mere rubbish of the
savage mind.
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
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 Edingburgh Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson: which he never travelled, from his pocket, fit it
together, and set manfully to playing, as if for his own
delectation and inspired by the beauty of the scene. His
favourite air, it seems, was 'Over the hills and far
away.' At the first note, the distiller pricked his
ears. A flute at Fairmilehead? and playing 'Over the
hills and far away?' This must be his friendly enemy,
the gauger. Instantly horses were harnessed, and sundry
barrels of whisky were got upon a cart, driven at a
gallop round Hill End, and buried in the mossy glen
behind Kirk Yetton. In the same breath, you may be sure,
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