| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Vailima Prayers & Sabbath Morn by Robert Louis Stevenson: patience be renewed with dawn; as the sun lightens the world, so
let our loving-kindness make bright this house of our habitation.
ANOTHER FOR EVENING
LORD, receive our supplications for this house, family, and
country. Protect the innocent, restrain the greedy and the
treacherous, lead us out of our tribulation into a quiet land.
Look down upon ourselves and upon our absent dear ones. Help us
and them; prolong our days in peace and honour. Give us health,
food, bright weather, and light hearts. In what we meditate of
evil, frustrate our will; in what of good, further our endeavours.
Cause injuries to be forgot and benefits to be remembered.
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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 Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: village. The preceding winter had been remarkably severe, the
snow drifting to a great depth, and the frost continuing for an
unexampled period, and the summer following was as noteworthy
for its extreme heat. On one of the very hottest days in this
summer, Helen V. left the farmhouse for one of her long rambles
in the forest, taking with her, as usual, some bread and meat
for lunch. She was seen by some men in the fields making for
the old Roman Road, a green causeway which traverses the
highest part of the wood, and they were astonished to observe
that the girl had taken off her hat, though the heat of the sun
was already tropical. As it happened, a labourer, Joseph W. by
The Great God Pan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Kidnapped Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: "We must go back at once and find our master," said Nuter the Ryl, who
thought and spoke with much deliberation.
"No, no!" exclaimed Peter the Knook, who, cross and crabbed though he
was, might always be depended upon in an emergency. "If we delay, or
go back, there will not be time to get the toys to the children before
morning; and that would grieve Santa Claus more than anything else."
"It is certain that some wicked creatures have captured him," added
Kilter thoughtfully, "and their object must be to make the children
unhappy. So our first duty is to get the toys distributed as
carefully as if Santa Claus were himself present. Afterward we
can search for our master and easily secure his freedom."
A Kidnapped Santa Claus |
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 Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley: "Then I will be his mother, and he shall have the very best place;
so get out, all of you, this moment."
And she took up two great armfuls of babies - nine hundred under
one arm, and thirteen hundred under the other - and threw them
away, right and left, into the water. But they minded it no more
than the naughty boys in Struwelpeter minded when St. Nicholas
dipped them in his inkstand; and did not even take their thumbs out
of their mouths, but came paddling and wriggling back to her like
so many tadpoles, till you could see nothing of her from head to
foot for the swarm of little babies.
But she took Tom in her arms, and laid him in the softest place of
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