| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: the part which is in front. And of the organs they first contrived the
eyes to give light, and the principle according to which they were inserted
was as follows: So much of fire as would not burn, but gave a gentle
light, they formed into a substance akin to the light of every-day life;
and the pure fire which is within us and related thereto they made to flow
through the eyes in a stream smooth and dense, compressing the whole eye,
and especially the centre part, so that it kept out everything of a coarser
nature, and allowed to pass only this pure element. When the light of day
surrounds the stream of vision, then like falls upon like, and they
coalesce, and one body is formed by natural affinity in the line of vision,
wherever the light that falls from within meets with an external object.
|
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 Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles: OEDIPUS
(Str. 1)
Dark, dark! The horror of darkness, like a shroud,
Wraps me and bears me on through mist and cloud.
Ah me, ah me! What spasms athwart me shoot,
What pangs of agonizing memory?
CHORUS
No marvel if in such a plight thou feel'st
The double weight of past and present woes.
OEDIPUS
(Ant. 1)
 Oedipus Trilogy |