| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Koran: ever; verily, that is with God a serious thing.
If ye display a thing or conceal it, verily, God all things doth
know.
There is no crime against them (if they speak unveiled) to their
fathers, or their sons, or their brothers, or their brothers' sons, or
their sisters' sons, or their women, or what their right hands
possess; but let them fear God,-verily, God is witness over all.
Verily, God and His angels pray for the prophet. O ye who believe!
pray for him and salute him with a salutation!
Verily, those who annoy God and His Apostle, God will curse them
in this world and the next, and prepare for them shameful woe!
The Koran |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Adam Bede by George Eliot: And after ever such a while--hours and hours--the man came--him in
a smock-frock, and he looked at me so, I was frightened, and I
made haste and went on. I thought he was going to the wood and
would perhaps find the baby. And I went right on, till I came to
a village, a long way off from the wood, and I was very sick, and
faint, and hungry. I got something to eat there, and bought a
loaf. But I was frightened to stay. I heard the baby crying, and
thought the other folks heard it too--and I went on. But I was so
tired, and it was getting towards dark. And at last, by the
roadside there was a barn--ever such a way off any house--like the
barn in Abbot's Close, and I thought I could go in there and hide
Adam Bede |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum: in time."
The scrubby brush was almost like a grove of small
trees, for it reached as high as the heads of the two
girls, neither of whom was very tall. They were obliged
to thread their way in and out, until Dorothy was
afraid they would get lost, and finally they were
halted by a curious thing that barred their further
progress. It was a huge web -- as if woven by gigantic
spiders -- and the delicate, lacy film was fastened
stoutly to the branches of the bushes and continued to
the right and left in the form of a half circle. The
Glinda of Oz |
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 Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: ALCIBIADES: Yes.
SOCRATES: And that there is no third or middle term between discretion and
indiscretion?
ALCIBIADES: True.
SOCRATES: And there cannot be two opposites to one thing?
ALCIBIADES: There cannot.
SOCRATES: Then madness and want of sense are the same?
ALCIBIADES: That appears to be the case.
SOCRATES: We shall be in the right, therefore, Alcibiades, if we say that
all who are senseless are mad. For example, if among persons of your own
age or older than yourself there are some who are senseless,--as there
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