Today's Stichomancy for Ian McKellan
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: as he had ended his involuntary revery.
He crossed the two flaps of his flowered dressing-gown, put his feet
on a stool, slipped his hands into the pockets of his red cashmere
trousers, and lay back in a delightful easy-chair with side wings, the
seat and back of which described an angle of one hundred and twenty
degrees. He stopped drinking tea and remained motionless, his eyes
fixed on the gilded hand which formed the knob of his shovel, but
without seeing either hand or shovel. He ceased even to poke the fire,
--a vast mistake! Isn't it one of our greatest pleasures to play with
the fire when we think of women? Our minds find speeches in those tiny
blue flames which suddenly dart up and babble on the hearth. We
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: "She feels rather low, but as well as can be expected," Sabina would
answer, nodding confidentially.
Frau Lehmann's bad time was approaching. Anna and her friends referred to
it as her "journey to Rome," and Sabina longed to ask questions, yet, being
ashamed of her ignorance, was silent, trying to puzzle it out for herself.
She knew practically nothing except that the Frau had a baby inside her,
which had to come out--very painful indeed. One could not have one without
a husband--that she also realised. But what had the man got to do with it?
So she wondered as she sat mending tea towels in the evening, head bent
over her work, light shining on her brown curls. Birth--what was it?
wondered Sabina. Death--such a simple thing. She had a little picture of
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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 Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: in the Lanty mansion, his appearance always caused a great sensation
in the family. One would have supposed that it was an event of the
greatest importance. Only Filippo, Marianina, Madame de Lanty, and an
old servant enjoyed the privilege of assisting the unknown to walk, to
rise, to sit down. Each one of them kept a close watch on his
slightest movements. It seemed as if he were some enchanted person
upon whom the happiness, the life, or the fortune of all depended. Was
it fear or affection? Society could discover no indication which
enabled them to solve this problem. Concealed for months at a time in
the depths of an unknown sanctuary, this familiar spirit suddenly
emerged, furtively as it were, unexpectedly, and appeared in the
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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 Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: an atmosphere, went back straight into her own world. I have always
kept her first letters about it, always shall. For months after,
while the expedition still raged after snipers and rifle-thieves, I
discussed with Lady Chichele the probable outcome of it all. I have
sometimes felt ashamed of leaping as straight as I did with Anna to
what we thought the inevitable. I based no calculation on all Mrs.
Harbottle had gone back to, just as I had based no calculation on
her ten years' companionship in arms when I kept her from the three
o'clock train. This last was a retrospection in which Anna
naturally could not join me; she never knew, poor dear, how
fortunate as to its moment was the campaign she deplored, and
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