art-of-living

The Quest for Wisdom foundation (QfWf) is founded to stimulate the inter-cultural art of living

“Every culture passes on its wisdom to future generations to grow as a person on an inward journey to the quintessence, that connects all corners of the world. Thereby we flourish as a community, celebrating life in the cosmopolis “

In a tilting world order the QfWf aims to contribute towards a culture of openness and pluriformity by tapping into one’s own and shared historical roots. Using Art Dialogues to revitalize wisdom traditions worldwide and liberate ourselves from groupthink!

The Wheel of the Intercultural Art of Living has been created to realize this mission. By the spinning of the Wheel around a yearly theme the three Quests flow together on our platform DeGuldenSnede:

Quest 1 Wisdom Web

Collecting and publishing wisdoms from all corners of the world according to the Wheel of the Intercultural Art of Living for the Wisdom Web

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Quest 2 Golden Ratio

Developing intercultural programmes according to the Golden Ratio principle that connects natural and cultural growth. Since 2024 the QfWf-platform Golden Ratio is dedicated to initiatives of World Citizenship around a yearly theme by co-creating artistic forms, play and dialogue: Golden Ratio Collection (e)books and Animal Wisdom storytelling.

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Quest 3 Meet

Living Encounters and a space to meet and to co-create, thereby making connections between cultures: by organizing a Yearly Meeting Day, Seasonal Meetings, Workshops — showing impressions on the QfWf video channel

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Quest 1: Wisdom Web

The Wisdom Web operationalizes the intercultural art of living.

Around its core of reciprocity are transcultural values like empathy for inclusion and the beauty of being different.

On the Wisdom Web, wisdom from all corners of the world is collected and presented in a special symbolic way.

By collecting and arranging the artistic, handcrafted, philosophical, spiritual, narrative, and symbolic contributions from all over the world — via the Wheel of the Intercultural Art of Living — they are organized as expressions of wisdom, developing the Intercultural Art of Living.

In doing so, the QfWf wants to contribute to intercultural connections based on the realization that these:

  • grow through awareness of the historical roots of cultures,
  • thrive on interest in other cultures and wisdom traditions and
  • bear fruit through encounters and cross-cultural perspectives.

The Wisdom Web continues to grow organically, with a rich palette of philosophical, artistic and spiritual expression and reflections, which concretize the Wheel of the Intercultural Art of Living.
This is accomplished thanks to the input of various QfWf-authors[1]

update 2026-08

[1] QfWf authors are authors, actors, artists, designers, drafters, photographers, illustrators, video and film makers and other producers of text, images, sound, and stakeholders who make the texts and other materials available to a QfWf-site have made.

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Quest 2: The Golden Ratio

Wisdom from all over the world

Wisdom from all over the world is an expression of cultural diversity as well as of unifying principles, such as the Golden Ratio: the principle that is defining natural growth as well as the harmony by which we perceive beauty. Cultures have diverse symbols of natural wisdom and beauty, as well as moral knowledge that is passed on through proverbs — for example, by means of the Golden Rule: “What you would not want done to you, do not do so to another”.

The ancient wisdom in symbols, rituals and natural principles can be extracted from (animal) stories, containing a moral clue or example: such as how to become as clever as the fox, or wise as the crow, witty as the spider or courageous as a lion. Collective knowledge and experiences are conveyed through seasonal rituals for harvest and the transition of solstices with light festivals in which the passage through the four seasons is celebrated in culturally diverse forms.

The Quest for Wisdom seeks to gather ancient symbolic and ritual wisdom from cultural traditions as an intercultural language in order to cocreatively develop:

  • contemporary artistic forms as expressions of both diversity and transcultural values
  • transcultural values and narrative wisdom for developing practices for global citizenship

The developed activities and programmes are described in the Quest for Wisdom-Brochure..

Developing artistic educational materials

By focussing on uniting principles like the Golden Ratio and the Golden Rule in culturally diverse materials, the facilitation of personal growth and community building is highlighted in the collected ancient wisdom on a collaborative Quest for Wisdom in order to:

  • to give a platform for the wisdom from different cultures and traditions
  • to enhance intercultural communication and interaction
  • to develop unifying transcultural practices by means of the artistic and narrative expressions

The Golden Ratio consists of a culturally diverse palette of materials that are grouped around particular themes; through play, proverbs, myths and animal stories. The QfWf has developed two series of (e)books: the Animal Wisdom Collection and the Wisdom Collection as well as contributions on a yearly programme on The Golden Ratio, thereby developing practices of World Citizenship.

The Golden Ratio in different forms:

Golden Ratio Playfulness — Board Games and Dialogue Tables

Golden Ratio Collections — (E) Books of Wisdom

Purchase of Educative Materials

One hundred percent of the money raised by the sale of all of the products will be used in realising our upcoming QfWf educational projects, all of which are non-profit and run by volunteers.

Update 2026-08

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