| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: perceived. Sex became one of the earliest divinities,
and there is abundant evidence that its organs and processes
generally were invested with a religious sense of awe and
sanctity. It was in fact the symbol (or rather the actuality)
of the permanent undying life of the race, and as such was
sacred to the uses of the race. Whatever taboos may have,
among different peoples, guarded its operations, it was not
essentially a thing to be concealed, or ashamed of. Rather
the contrary. For instance the early Christian writer,
Hippolytus, Bishop of Pontus (A.D. 200), in his Refutation
of all Heresies, Book V, says that the Samothracian Mysteries,
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: up and down the China Seas, selling opium at the cannon's mouth, and
altering, for the benefit of the foreign nation, the common
highwayman's demand of "your money OR your life," into that of "your
money AND your life." Neither does a great nation allow the lives
of its innocent poor to be parched out of them by fog fever, and
rotted out of them by dunghill plague, for the sake of sixpence a
life extra per week to its landlords; {11} and then debate, with
drivelling tears, and diabolical sympathies, whether it ought not
piously to save, and nursingly cherish, the lives of its murderers.
Also, a great nation having made up its mind that hanging is quite
the wholesomest process for its homicides in general, can yet with
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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 Poems by Bronte Sisters: Unknown, undreamt by thee;
There's speechless rapture in the life
Of those who follow me.
Yes, I have seen thy votaries oft,
Upheld by thee their guide,
In strength and courage mount aloft
The steepy mountain-side;
I've seen them stand against the sky,
And gazing from below,
Beheld thy lightning in their eye
Thy triumph on their brow.
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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 Charmides by Plato: men.
Certainly he is.
Yet I should like to know one thing more: which of the different kinds of
knowledge makes him happy? or do all equally make him happy?
Not all equally, he replied.
But which most tends to make him happy? the knowledge of what past,
present, or future thing? May I infer this to be the knowledge of the game
of draughts?
Nonsense about the game of draughts.
Or of computation?
No.
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