The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: commonly denotes a door on Mars as does a door knob on Earth.
Gently pressing it, I had the satisfaction of feeling the
door slowly give before me, and in another instant we were
looking into a dimly lighted apartment, which, so far as we
could see, was unoccupied.
Without more ado I swung the door wide open and, followed
by the huge Thark, stepped into the chamber. As we stood
for a moment in silence gazing about the room a slight noise
behind caused me to turn quickly, when, to my astonishment,
I saw the door close with a sharp click as though by an
unseen hand.
The Gods of Mars |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: now this doom was on them, that they must give false counsel to
their own destruction, and to the destruction of those who
worshipped them, as was decreed by One more powerful than they.
Now while we were talking the sun had sunk swiftly, so that all the
world was dark. But the light still lingered on the snowy crests
of the volcanoes Popo and Ixtac, staining them an awful red. Never
before to my sight had the shape of the dead woman whose
everlasting bier is Ixtac's bulk, seemed so clear and wonderful as
on that night, for either it was so or my fancy gave it the very
shape and colour of a woman's corse steeped in blood and laid out
for burial. Nor was it my phantasy alone, for when Montezuma had
Montezuma's Daughter |