| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: in his own dream bas-relief, but the outlines had formed themselves
insensibly under his hands. It was, no doubt, the giant shape
he had raved of in delirium. That he really knew nothing of the
hidden cult, save from what my uncle's relentless catechism had
let fall, he soon made clear; and again I strove to think of some
way in which he could possibly have received the weird impressions.
He talked of his dreams in a strangely poetic fashion; making
me see with terrible vividness the damp Cyclopean city of slimy
green stone - whose geometry, he oddly said, was all wrong - and
hear with frightened expectancy the ceaseless, half-mental calling
from underground: "Cthulhu fhtagn", "Cthulhu fhtagn."
Call of Cthulhu |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Heritage of the Desert by Zane Grey: from the water-bag and cooled his parching lips and throat. The waves of
the sand-dunes were as the waves of the ocean. He did not look backward,
dreading to see what little progress he had made. Ahead were miles on
miles of graceful heaps, swelling mounds, crested ridges, all different,
yet regular and rhythmical, drift on drift, dune on dune, in endless
waves. Wisps of sand were whipped from their summits in white ribbons
and wreaths, and pale clouds of sand shrouded little hollows. The
morning breeze, rising out of the west, approached in a rippling lines
like the crest of an inflowing tide.
Silvermane snorted, lifted his ears and looked westward toward a yellow
pall which swooped up from the desert.
The Heritage of the Desert |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: dit des choses infames. Tu m'as traitee comme une courtisane, comme
une prostituee, moi, Salome, fille d'Herodias, Princesse de Judee!
Eh bien, Iokanaan, moi je vis encore, mais toi tu es mort et ta tete
m'appartient. Je puis en faire ce que je veux. Je puis la jeter
aux chiens et aux oiseaux de l'air. Ce que laisseront les chiens,
les oiseaux de l'air le mangeront . . . Ah! Iokanaan, Iokanaan, tu
as ete le seul homme que j'ai aime. Tous les autres hommes
m'inspirent du degout. Mais, toi, tu etais beau. Ton corps etait
une colonne d'ivoire sur un socle d'argent. C'etait un jardin plein
de colombes et de lis d'argent. C'etait une tour d'argent ornee de
boucliers d'ivoire. Il n'y avait rien au monde d'aussi blanc que
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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 House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: And lights wink out through the windows, one by one.
A clamor of frosty sirens mourns at the night.
Pale slate-grey clouds whirl up from the sunken sun.
And the wandering one, the inquisitive dreamer of dreams,
The eternal asker of answers, stands in the street,
And lifts his palms for the first cold ghost of rain.
The purple lights leap down the hill before him.
The gorgeous night has begun again.
'I will ask them all, I will ask them all their dreams,
I will hold my light above them and seek their faces.
I will hear them whisper, invisible in their veins . . .'
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