| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dust by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius: wholesome, boisterous boys and chatty, beribboned little girls.
She was rooming with a family, taking her meals at a restaurant,
keeping up her zest in tomorrow by running a shop. She thought of
how her friend, Mrs. Robinson, gracious, democratic woman of wide
sympathies that she was, had lived alone after David Robinson's
death, taking his place as president of the bank, during the
years her only daughter, Janet, had been off at college and later
travelling around the country "on the stage"--of all things for a
daughter of Fallon. When hadn't the town been full of these
widowed, elderly women made childless alike by life and by death?
What others had met successfully, she could also, she told
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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 Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft: translated it) that man is either the oldest or the last of earth's
masters, or that the common bulk of life and substance walks alone.
The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be.
Not in the spaces we know, but between them, they walk serene
and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen. Yog-Sothoth knows
the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and
guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth.
He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They
shall break through again. He knows where They had trod earth's
fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold
Them as They tread. By Their smell can men sometimes know Them
The Dunwich Horror |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass: an instant, I gave a sudden surge, and rose to my
hands and knees. Just as I did that, one of their
number gave me, with his heavy boot, a powerful
kick in the left eye. My eyeball seemed to have
burst. When they saw my eye closed, and badly
swollen, they left me. With this I seized the hand-
spike, and for a time pursued them. But here the
carpenters interfered, and I thought I might as well
give it up. It was impossible to stand my hand
against so many. All this took place in sight of not
less than fifty white ship-carpenters, and not one
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave |
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 Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: He busied himself with putting on his boots, and talked meanwhile
in his curt, resolute tones.
"What's the matter with you, Ossipon? You look glum and seek even
my company. I hear that you are seen constantly in places where
men utter foolish things over glasses of liquor. Why? Have you
abandoned your collection of women? They are the weak who feed the
strong - eh?"
He stamped one foot, and picked up his other laced boot, heavy,
thick-soled, unblacked, mended many times. He smiled to himself
grimly.
"Tell me, Ossipon, terrible man, has ever one of your victims
The Secret Agent |
