| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa: again. No more danced those black spots on its surface, for they
were the toes of old Iktomi. He was drowned.
The Iktomi children hurried away from the creek, crying and
calling for their water-dead father.
DANCE IN A BUFFALO SKULL
DANCE IN A BUFFALO SKULL
IT was night upon the prairie. Overhead the stars were
twinkling bright their red and yellow lights. The moon was young.
A silvery thread among the stars, it soon drifted low beneath the
horizon.
Upon the ground the land was pitchy black. There are night
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: to the city of Dandrenoble, and after to Constantinople, that was
wont to be clept Bezanzon. And there dwelleth commonly the Emperor
of Greece. And there is the most fair church and the most noble of
all the world; and it is of Saint Sophie. And before that church
is the image of Justinian the emperor, covered with gold, and he
sitteth upon an horse y-crowned. And he was wont to hold a round
apple of gold in his hand: but it is fallen out thereof. And men
say there, that it is a token that the emperor hath lost a great
part of his lands and of his lordships; for he was wont to be
Emperor of Roumania and of Greece, of all Asia the less, and of the
land of Syria, of the land of Judea in the which is Jerusalem, and
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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 The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: could see clearly and without difficulty. But it was the
negation of light; objects were presented to my eyes, if I may
say so, without any medium, in such a manner that if there had
been a prism in the room I should have seen no colours
represented in it.
"I watched, and at last I saw nothing but a substance
as jelly. Then the ladder was ascended again... [here the MS.
is illegible] ...for one instance I saw a Form, shaped in
dimness before me, which I will not farther describe. But the
symbol of this form may be seen in ancient sculptures, and in
paintings which survived beneath the lava, too foul to be spoken
The Great God Pan |
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 Ion by Plato: winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been
inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him: when
he has not attained to this state, he is powerless and is unable to utter
his oracles. Many are the noble words in which poets speak concerning the
actions of men; but like yourself when speaking about Homer, they do not
speak of them by any rules of art: they are simply inspired to utter that
to which the Muse impels them, and that only; and when inspired, one of
them will make dithyrambs, another hymns of praise, another choral strains,
another epic or iambic verses--and he who is good at one is not good at any
other kind of verse: for not by art does the poet sing, but by power
divine. Had he learned by rules of art, he would have known how to speak
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