| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: suppose that the gods did not know what was proper for each of them to
have, or, knowing this, that they would seek to procure for themselves by
contention that which more properly belonged to others. They all of them
by just apportionment obtained what they wanted, and peopled their own
districts; and when they had peopled them they tended us, their nurselings
and possessions, as shepherds tend their flocks, excepting only that they
did not use blows or bodily force, as shepherds do, but governed us like
pilots from the stern of the vessel, which is an easy way of guiding
animals, holding our souls by the rudder of persuasion according to their
own pleasure;--thus did they guide all mortal creatures. Now different
gods had their allotments in different places which they set in order.
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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: Now shall I say you also the way, that goeth from Babylon to the
Mount of Sinai, where Saint Catherine lieth. He must pass by the
deserts of Arabia, by the which deserts Moses led the people of
Israel. And then pass men by the well that Moses made with his
hand in the deserts, when the people grucched; for they found
nothing to drink. And then pass men by the Well of Marah, of the
which the water was first bitter; but the children of Israel put
therein a tree, and anon the water was sweet and good for to drink.
And then go men by desert unto the vale of Elim, in the which vale
be twelve wells; and there be seventy-two trees of palm, that bear
the dates the which Moses found with the children of Israel. 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 Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs: tauntingly.
Up went the great bull whip, and without abating his
speed a particle the man leaped into the midst of the
wicked blades that menaced him. Right and left with
the quickness of thought the heavy lash fell upon heads,
shoulders and sword arms. There was no chance to wield
a blade in the face of that terrific onslaught,
for the whip fell, not with the ordinary force
of a man-held lash, but with all the stupendous power
of those giant shoulders and arms behind it.
A single blow felled the foremost head hunter, breaking
The Monster Men |
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 Enoch Arden, &c. by Alfred Tennyson: Save under pall with bearers. In one month,
Thro' weary and yet wearier hours,
The childless mother went to seek her child;
And when he felt the silence of his house
About him, and the change and not the change,
And those fixt eyes of painted ancestors
Staring for ever from their gilded walls
On him their last descendant, his own head
Began to droop, to fall; the man became
Imbecile; his one word was `desolate';
Dead for two years before his death was he;
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