| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Faith of Men by Jack London: and their eyes watered and their stomachs warmed, till from being
afraid they reached greedily for more; and when I had them well
started, I turned to the others. Tummasook made a brag about how
he had once killed a polar bear, and in the vigour of his pantomime
nearly slew his mother's brother. But nobody heeded. The woman
Ipsukuk fell to weeping for a son lost long years agone in the ice,
and the shaman made incantation and prophecy. So it went, and
before morning they were all on the floor, sleeping soundly with
the gods.
"The story tells itself, does it not? The news of the magic potion
spread. It was too marvellous for utterance. Tongues could tell
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: But the schoolmaster had been since blest with the consolation of
sweet Sue, while for him there was no consoler.
Descending to the streets, he went listlessly along till he arrived at an inn,
and entered it. Here he drank several glasses of beer in rapid succession,
and when he came out it was night. By the light of the flickering
lamps he rambled home to supper, and had not long been sitting at table
when his landlady brought up a letter that had just arrived for him.
She laid it down as if impressed with a sense of its possible importance,
and on looking at it Jude perceived that it bore the embossed stamp
of one of the colleges whose heads he had addressed. "ONE--at last!"
cried Jude.
Jude the Obscure |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: lest, hearing her fears thus substantiated, she should lose her
self-control, she had preferred to say, in a voice that she
tried to make indifferent: "The 'proceedings,' or whatever the
lawyers call them, have begun. While they're going on I like to
stay quite by myself .... I don't know why ...."
Strefford, at that, had looked at her keenly. "Ah," he
murmured; and his lips were twisted into their old mocking
smile. "Speaking of proceedings," he went on carelessly, "what
stage have Ellie's reached, I wonder? I saw her and Vanderlyn
and Bockheimer all lunching cheerfully together to-day at
Larue's."
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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 Pericles by William Shakespeare: BAWD.
Next, he's the governor of this country, and a man whom I am
bound to.
MARINA.
If he govern the country, you are bound to him indeed; but how
honourable he is in that, I know not.
BAWD.
Pray you, without any more virginal fencing, will you use him
kindly? He will line your apron with gold.
MARINA.
What he will do graciously, I will thankfully receive.
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