| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Koran: called out to him and well-nigh crowded upon him. Say, 'I only call
upon my Lord, and I join no one with Him.'
Say, 'Verily, I cannot control for you either harm, or right
direction.'
Say, 'Verily, as for me none can protect me against God, nor do I
find any refuge beside Him,-except delivering the message from God and
His errands: and whoso rebels against God and His Apostle, verily, for
him is the fire of hell for them to dwell therein for ever and for
aye!'
Until when they see what they are threatened with, then shall they
surely know who is most weak at helping and fewest in numbers!
The Koran |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: until at last, Mr. Henderland after expressing his delight in my
company, and satisfaction at meeting with a friend of Mr.
Campbell's ("whom," says he, "I will make bold to call that sweet
singer of our covenanted Zion"), proposed that I should make a
short stage, and lie the night in his house a little beyond
Kingairloch. To say truth, I was overjoyed; for I had no great
desire for John of the Claymore, and since my double
misadventure, first with the guide and next with the gentleman
skipper, I stood in some fear of any Highland stranger.
Accordingly we shook hands upon the bargain, and came in the
afternoon to a small house, standing alone by the shore of the
Kidnapped |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Amazing Interlude by Mary Roberts Rinehart: Henri's officer's cap, saluted. Most of them stumbled on, too weary to
so much as glance aside.
Nothing that Sara Lee had dreamed of war was like this. This was dreary
and sodden and hopeless. Those fresh troops at the crossroads that day
had been blithe and smiling. There had been none of the glitter and
panoply of war, but there had been movement, the beating of a drum, the
sharp cries of officers as the lines re-formed.
Here there were no lines. Just such a stream of men as at home might
issue at night from a coal mine, too weary for speech. Only here they
were packed together closely, and they did not speak, and some of them
were wounded.
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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 Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: Since Christ is now living in me, He abolishes the Law, condemns sin, and
destroys death in me. These foes vanish in His presence. Christ abiding in
me drives out every evil. This union with Christ delivers me from the
demands of the Law, and separates me from my sinful self. As long as I
abide in Christ, nothing can hurt me.
Christ domiciling in me, the old Adam has to stay outside and remain
subject to the Law. Think what grace, righteousness, life, peace, and
salvation there is in me, thanks to that inseparable conjunction between
Christ and me through faith!
Paul has a peculiar style, a celestial way of speaking. "I live," he says, "I
live not; I am dead, I am not dead; I am a sinner, I am not a sinner; I have
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