The ‘Four Winds’ take you on a journey of discovery in four rounds, around the colourful dialogue tablecloth, full of symbolism. These symbols enrich your conversation with mythological wisdom and intercultural perspectives.
Through a dialogue guide, you explore a challenging issue as group of friends, family or team, or, each individual can investigate their own question with the group.
Depending on the size of the group (2 to 8 players), the game will be completed in two hours, half a day or a full day.
It is also possible to engage a host dialogue coach from the Quest for wisdom foundation.
The art of listening, asking questions and answering authentically
In four rounds of dialogue ― visible as the four circles on the dialogue tablecloth ― participants move from the outside in, to the inner circle in which the Four Winds are depicted.
Images tell a story
The colours on the dialogue table refer to the four elements earth, water, air and fire. These are connected in the game with a basic symbol, which opens a space for encounter, such as the eye as a ‘mirror of the soul’.
“I dreamed I was a butterfly… or am I a butterfly dreaming of being a human?”
Zhuang Zi (369-286 BCE)
The four rounds
Dialogue tablecloth Four Winds
In the first round, the images (and rich objects) in the outer circle of the dialogue tablecloth invite participants to imagine the theme they want to investigate.
In the second round you are given one of the eight symbols for philosophical tools with intercultural perspectives: these represent qualities for the art of living to be able to deal with the issue more wisely.
In the third round, you roll the coloured dice and see which creature or animal you encounter in the mythical landscape on the dialogue tablecloth. How could the virtues and vices, as well as divine qualities that they embody, help you to realise the good life?
For the fourth round, the wind rose in the four elementary colours on the dialogue tablecloth visualizes the four cardinal directions, from which the harvest of the game might help to get the issue in the right direction. Participants describe their harvest from the dialogue on the Game Fill-in form as a quatrain.
Cards with intercultural perspectives, rich objects around the playful dialogue table. Rich objects to enrich the dialogue
Duration: 2 hours to one (half) day in a small group up to 8 players.
Playing material
ISBN: 9789492127150 Four Winds
Also in a Dutch version:
ISBN: 9789492127143 Vier Winden
Box with:
Dialogue Guide: explaining the game and the symbols
Playing Field:
1 Dialogue table cloth
Game attributes:
1 mirror;
1 key;
1 hourglass as rich object on the Dialogue table;
Small weights;
1 quintessence marble;
1 small talking stick;
1 hour glass
Playing Cards:
8 Philosophical Tools with Western perspectives
8 Philosophical Tools with intercultural perspectives
Fill-in forms:
Double sided with instructions for writing a quatrain
“Every person longs for the good life and every culture passes on its wisdom to future generations to grow as a person on an inward journey 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. Can we learn to be global citizens by revitalizing wisdom traditions worldwide and liberating ourselves from groupthink?
Developing the diversity of cultural wisdom into a golden ratio of educational materials to enhance the intercultural art of living, such as play- and dialogue forms, e-books and storytelling
The Wheel of Intercultural Art of Living visualizes the philosophy and mission of the QFWF
The wheel was developed as a multidimensional and multifaceted approach to the intercultural art of living with the help of the following:
Colours/medium – representing the five natural elements (earth, water, air, fire and ether)
One focus — the circle with an edge and a centre that represents the dynamics of the wheel two-dimensionally with a centripetal direction from periphery to centre and vice versa as a centrifugal movement —
The wheel consists of sixteen spokes representing wisdom traditions
The sixteen spokes use the pictograms drawn by Louis Van Marissing to refer to wisdom traditions from East and West, North and South. The Wheel vizualizes these different approaches to wisdom, acknowledging its many different forms from various cultural traditions, from religious and spiritual roads, philosophical and mythological directions, arts and crafts, praxis and personal experience. This plurality is organized by means of the the Wheel with the sixteen spokes as well as with six dimensions, all of which are indicated with pictograms.
The QFWF facilitates intercultural exchange and development of transcultural forms of wisdom and the art of living. This is done in co-creation with people involved in these traditions. The (exploratory) gathering of wisdom from all corners of the world in its diverse forms – texts, images, stories, music – is further developed into ‘a golden section’ of educational material.
Symbolic bridges between cultures
The wheel visualises intercultural bridges through the symbolism of the five elements: these are depicted as five elementary fields with their own pictogram (eye, heart, spiral, hand, lemniscate) and, within them, the spokes of sixteen (inter)cultural paths to wisdom.
The QFWF dissociates itself from racial and ethnocentric provisions by presenting the language play of the five elements emphatically as a symbolic arrangement of the Wheel. Within this, sixteen wisdom paths are assigned in an associative way, without wanting to interpret the (folk) nature of cultures, tribes and peoples. The focus of the QFWF is to develop intercultural exchange and connections on the basis of a symbolism that occurs as a mythical language in almost all cultures. In this way, the QFWF remains outside philosophical, theological and political debates about the appreciation of cultures.
As can be heard in original and heroic stories from almost all cultures, the process of separating and reconnecting the elements symbolizes an alchemy as a process of creation. A natural order arises out of an original chaos, emptiness or by a divine creation. Also, in all wisdom traditions, paths to a good life have been developed – aimed at connection from within – which are called differently: ‘salvation’, ‘enlightenment’, ‘moksha’, ‘compassion’, ‘humanity’, ‘walhalla’, ‘the eternal hunting ground’, ‘The kingdom of God’, ‘Heaven’, …
Symbolism of the five elements
In almost all cultures, the natural elements in mythical, philosophical and religious stories play a basic role. That is why the five elements in the Wheel form pillars for building inter- and transcultural connections. Compared to the Western natural philosophical debate, these concepts are given a dynamic and symbolic meaning in the three Quests.
The archetypal form of the Wheel expresses this art of living as the mystery of squaring the circle::
The four elementary fields – earth, water, air and fire – symbolise a movement towards the periphery, the four corners of the world, where the value of diversity becomes visible. The movement towards the centre, through three groups of (inter)cultural paths on the elemental fields of earth, water, air and fire, focuses on the coherence between cultures and the development of transcultural connections.
The fifth elementary field – ether – symbolizes in the centre the place of connection from within (the place that is not a place, the unity of opposites, the philosophia perrenis). Visualized with four pictograms are encounters between cultures 3 through history and time, manifesting themselves as interfaces, intersections and rifts in history and between eras.
Rotating around the core, the Rad visualizes the development of
intercultural art of living from the three layers:
Layer 1: the five elementary fields of wisdom
Layer 2: the sixteen (inter)cultural paths to wisdom
Layer 3: the six dimensions
From the perspective of the Wheel, religious, scientific, literary, artisanal, philosophical and artistic expressions appear equally as symbolic forms and building blocks for intercultural connections. The diversity of cultural expressions and visions on the good life are symbolically arranged as an intercultural art of living by means of the Wheel:
* by symbolically characterizing the five ‘elementary’ fields as (earth, water, air, fire and ether) fields of wisdom
* by linking expressions of wisdom and (inter)cultural wisdom paths to these five fields
* by visualizing an ‘in-between’ a space for dialogue and exchange based on cultural forms of wisdom.
Exchange, development and cross-fertilization take place along five elementary fields by rearranging wisdom from religious and cultural traditions according to their cultural- historical origins on the one hand, and, on the other hand, according to intercultural and transcultural forms of wisdom as seen from the elementary symbolism of the Wheel. For example, the Tree of life is a transcultural symbol that expresses both a kinship between cultures as well as a concrete form of a particular expression of a Tree of life as recognized within a specific culture.
The five elementary fields of wisdom
The wheel with the five elementary fields
The symbolism of the five elements generates a bridge language between cultures with the aim of further developing an intercultural art of living.
The green quadrant with the eye is associatively connected to the earth and unlocks a symbolism around eye power, the seeing of the (strange) other, earthly and grounded;
The blue quadrant with the heart is associated with water and opens up a symbolism around heart power, spontaneous expression including flowing and counter-flowing movements;
The yellow quadrant with the spiral is associated with the air and opens up a symbolism around light and darkness and the rhythm of breathing;
The red quadrant with the hand is associated with the fire and opens up a symbolism around fire (offerings) and the power of transformation;
The white circle around the centre with the lemniscate is associated with ether and opens up a symbolism around an eternal movement of cultural-historical appearances and links ether as the fleeting cosmic element.
The five fields have been characterized as forms of the art of living with the help of symbolic icons:
Earth – the eye – a meaningful field of natural connection and physical, grounded presence;
Water – the heart – a symbolic field giving meaning to lovingly meandering together with the natural currents and counter currents;
Air – the head (spiral) – a meaningful field of breathing, coordination inside and outside, insight and being attentive;
Fire – the hand – a meaningful field of sacrifice, transformation and acting change;
Ether – the quintessence (lemniscate) – a meaningful field of the interplay of the four elements, of alchemy and encounters, connections and fault lines.
Wisdom traditions and wisdom are given a place on the elementary fields of wisdom and the sixteen (inter)cultural wisdom paths appear as the spokes of the Wheel.
Wisdom traditions – from Buddhism to Nordic mythology, from Christian rituals to Indian myths – can be organized according to their cultural-historical origins as well as a source for developing an intercultural art of living in the context of globalizing society.
The intercultural art of living is growing from its cultural-historical roots and will be nourished from (inter)cultural studies by which wisdom traditions can be kept alive in a global context.
Both personal expressions and stories handed down as contextually embedded wisdoms, as well as practical and art-based forms of the art of living, are given a symbolic rearrangement by means of the Wheel: as inspirational examples of ‘elementary’ – earthly, meandering, airy, fiery, ethereal – expressions and forms on how to live life well.
The symbols in the Wheel (namely the eye, the heart, the spiral, the hand and the lemniscate) therefore represent, both on a collective and personal level, the elementary existential qualities for the development of a basic attitude of openness and interest, around a pivot of love and wisdom, the quintessence, the loving willingness to connect, meet and open up for intercultural dialogue.
The development of intercultural art of living through the Wheel
In the philosophy of the Wheel, these elementary existential qualities – of the open heart, the embodied eye, the hand of co-creation, the attentive path spiraling in and out, and the lemniscate of living encounters and the infinite creation of meaning – form the indispensable pivotal points for the development of an intercultural art of living and transcultural forms of living the good life. The QFWF stimulates this development with educational material based on ‘a Golden Section’ of the divers expressions of wisdoms collected on the QFWF-Wisdom Web from the global society.
Cultural diversity is visible on the periphery of the Wheel. Towards the centre the elementary fields and intercultural bars (spokes) touch the hub (pivotal point). The hub symbolizes a transcultural dimension that transcends cultural determinants. Through the colourful differences there is an elementary focus on what connects people: by moving beyond the opposites on the surface level of (collective) opinions and interests to the deep dimension of humanity and loving wisdom (the pivot) in the centre; where the opposites coincide, the quintessence.
By means of ‘bricolage’ (the way an engineer (bricoleur) uses just the available tools and materials to make structures) with insights and forms of praxis of multiple cultures one can develop a global society for the purpose of becoming human (becoming who you are) and developing local communities with a cosmopolitan spirit.
For example, with regard to a focus on ‘the right middle’ (Aristotle) according to the practical wisdom (‘phronèsis’) of the community, there is a relationship between Greek classical virtue ethics with insights from Ubuntu and from Confucianism and values of ‘communitas’.
A Golden Section of Wisdom
The wheel with the five elementary fields and sixteen spokes, depicting intercultural roads
In the Wheel, the wisdom traditions are both contextually embedded according to their cultural-historical origins, as well as sixteen paths or sources for intercultural wisdom. This ambiguous positioning arises from the symbolical bridges, the language game of the five elements, providing a twofold orientation: both towards philosophical unity and transcultural forms of life as well as towards cultural diversity at the corners of the elementary fields. The inter- and transcultural dynamics is symbolically characterized with pictograms.
There are two levels of developing wisdom: At the collective level of wisdom traditions:
earthly paths of wisdoms give expression to a grounded quality and embodied see,
meandering roads of wisdom are expressive of a heart-quality: coagulating and liquefying the status quo,
wisdom of the air and breathing that expresses the rhythmically inwards and outwards spiralling connection of natural being with the macrocosm,
fiery ways with wisdoms that give expression to community ethos and co-creating (hands on) qualities,
ethereal pathways expressing an eternal lemniscate movement of finding meaning: volatilizing and deconstructing and then materializing and socially
constructing again;
on the individual level of the personal art of living:
In a globalising society, people can draw on various wisdom traditions without the need to join as an adept of a particular tradition. Wisdom paths give direction to personal growth and interpersonal relationships. The Wheel is meant as a compass to be able to orientate oneself in the diversity of directions. The five elementary fields open up intercultural fields of finding meaning through exploring various cultural wisdom traditions and transcultural values.
The Wheel provides symbolic signposts for personal growth through the development of elementary existential qualities:
eye-power through the embodied seeing and from imagination (mythos)
the open heart, depicting compassion and enthusiasm (compassion and pathos)
the spiral, depicting resonance and tuning in to the rhythm of breathing, connecting inside with outside (logos)
the hand, depicting action and starting a change with movement from within and hands-on (ethos and cocreation)
the lemniscates, depicting the space between ‘frames’ and the infinite process of giving meaning and meeting ‘the other’ (quintessence).
The sixteen (inter)cultural paths to wisdom are grouped per elementary field.
They are represented with their own icon.
The elementary field earth and the (inter)cultural earth roads
Earth roads in the Wheel
In the elementary field of ‘earth’ three icons have been placed that characterize wisdom paths of tribes and peoples living traditionally from natural contexts. In prehistoric times this ‘pre- modern’ way of life was spread all over the earth. As a result of modernization and colonization, this way of life has been reduced, but can still be found mainly within: African; Indian; and Aboriginal peoples, Maori and other indigenous peoples of Oceania.
Earth roads
The elementary field of water and the (inter)cultural water roads
Water roads in the Wheel
In the elementary field ‘water’ three icons have been placed that characterize wisdom roads as the natural movement and cosmic laws following ways of life. These meandering wisdom roads can, for example, be recognized within: Confucian; Dao; and Sufi currents.
water wegen
The elementary field air and the (inter)cultural air roads
Air roads in the Wheel
In the elementary field ‘air’ three icons have been placed that characterize wisdom roads as pathways of insight and breath based on wisdom traditions. This orientation can often be recognized in connection with the symbolism of light and darkness in the following perspectives: Buddhist, advaita vedanta; gnosis, mystical and hermetic philosophy; Germanic, Celtic and Nordic mythology.
Air roads
The elementary field of fire and the (inter)cultural fire roads
Fire roads in the Wheel
In the elementary field of ‘fire’ three icons have been placed that characterize religious and spiritual traditions, in which, especially, the meaning of fire and the struggle between good and evil, sacrifices and transformation play an important role. This orientation can be recognized within: animist-shamanist; Hindu; and monotheistic – zoroastrian, jewish, christian and islamic – directions.
Fire roads
The ether field and the (inter)cultural ether roads
Ether roads in the Wheel
The ‘ether field’ symbolically refers to the fact that the longing for connection and the search for wisdom – although culturally different and colourfully designed – occur in all cultures and is nourished by: encounters between cultures, and profile gets through interfaces, intersections and fractures in history and
between eras.
ether roads
The six dimensions
The six dimensions of the Wheel characterize wisdom in many forms on the continuum between theory and practice; multi-layered by means of different medial forms – verbal, musical, visual, ritual, narrative, dancing, … – in which the quest for wisdom is expressed.
By giving space to the diversity of medial expression, the various wisdom traditions can be highlighted in a multifaceted way, showing inter- and subcultural forms, dominant and minority voices.
For example, the elementary field of air (insight) show different paths, such as a variety of forms of ‘Buddhism’ from Zen Buddhism to mindfulness. The diverse wisdom traditions include both visions as well as forms of praxis, a mythology and other narratives and stories, cultural customs and rituals, musical and other artistic expressions of wisdom. The six dimensions of the Wheel are:
visions, philosophy
stories, myths,
rituals, rituality
symbols, symbolism
praxis, arts and crafts
social actuality and/or a personal vision or survival.
With these six dimensions, the Wheel expresses (inter)cultural diversity from the historical roots as well as current practices and expressions of the art of living, shown on the continuum between theory and practice.
The six dimensions
The complete wheel
the five elementary fields,
the sixteen (inter)cultural avenues
the six dimensions
The three layers form the complete Wheel of intercultural art of living.
The complete wheel of intercultural art of living
The Wheel makes visible how the periphery shows cultural diversity and the corepresents connections from within, such as the transcultural value of ‘compassion’. The in- between space (between the periphery and the inner core) evokes intercultural dialogues and a cosmopolitan art of living through a Golden Section (Ratio) of wisdom traditions, like the budding of a flower which is always through nourishment from cultural roots.
Quest for Wisdom Foundation (QFWF) stimulates the Intercultural Art of Living in a Globalized World!
The QFWF wants to contribute to a culture of openness and to cultural diversity (inter-esse) by tapping into one’s own and shared historical intercultural roots and wisdom traditions.
The QFWF programs have been honored twice by a cultural fund:
Storytelling programma Animal Wisdom in 2020-2021
With a subsidy from Prins Bernard Cultuurfonds i.s.m. Fonds zuidoost, awarded in 2020, the QFWF has developed a storytelling-Project- around animal wisdom in storytelling traditions from the four corners of the world. The purpose of this program is to bring ancient wisdom into new forms for contemporary ears, which has led to the development of the website Animal Wisdom and the development of an Intercultural lesson for elementary education.
The “Global Citizenship of the streets” project in 2023-2024
With a subsidy from the Cultural Participation Fund, the QFWF will realize the “Wereldburgerschap van de straat” “World Citizenship of the Street” project in 2023-2024 in the form of a triptych in 3 phases. Reflecting on the history of slavery (phase 1) and collecting intercultural ingredients of dreams of global citizenship in images, music, dance, stories and other expressions of (inter)cultural heritage (phase 2) culminates in a social experiment with collaborating partner organizations (phase 3) for global citizenship around an intercultural program with the wisdom and beauty from the four corners of the world.
The QDWD does this by using Art as a magic and collecting it as ingredients in book form, under the title Amor Fati and Amor Mundi, on a digital platform The Golden Ratio and in a co-creative program; developed and implemented in collaboration with the Cultural Dream Weavers Foundation and the Curinesa Foundation, independent artists, and with the Wehpokamanong association, which preserves the cultural heritage of indigenous groups from Suriname in the Netherlands and passes it on to young generations. This culminates in a final event in the late summer of 2024.
Being able to deal effectively with our differences is a delicate matter in our current times.
The objective of the foundation calls for an intercultural art of living as an answer to the appeal of ‘the multicultural society’.
Dealing with differences
Dealing with differences has been raised as a social issue by Paul Scheffer, in his controversial article Het multicultural drama (2000). Before that, the international debate had been heated up by Samuel P. Huntington’s terrifying perspective on the Clash of Civilizations (1996). Since then, there has been a heated political debate in many lands with multicultural populations, and the social debate in the social media is getting louder and more troubled ….
The QFWF wants to play a role in tilting the debate
The QFWF wants to help turn the polarized debate about migration, refugees and religious strife from a problem for ‘political experts’, to a relevant issue for all of us, making an ethical appeal to everyone, from the current administration to our neighbours on the street.
How do we deal with, and how do we want to deal with ‘the strange other’?
That strange other can be the foreigner, the outcast, the fringe figure, the refugee and sometimes ourselves …
In order to tilt the debate, the QFWF sees it as a call to recalibrate the awareness of who ‘we’ are as citizens of the cosmopolis: nomads with intercultural identities.
These geopolitical landslides affect all of us as co-inhabitants of our shared planet Earth.
That is why the QFWF addresses this issue as a question, an ethical issue of a practical, social and political nature:
How do we not exclude the other and the others ― the ‘stranger’, of a seemingly different nature ― but to see them as part of us, as ‘the strange other(s)’ in ourselves?How do we create growth inducing inter- and transcultural connections, instead of a divide and rule philosophy, us versus them mentality and an increasingly aggressive environment, as can be heard in the cry: “Who does not belong to ‘us’ (culture, race, religion, ethnicity) is against us …?”
By stimulating the recognition of the beauty of our differences and shared commonality, instead of a fear of ‘otherness’.
The world of the arts and (inter-)cultural expressions create space both in and between people and establish meaningful connections between cultures!
Creating inter- and transcultural connections
The QFWF aims to collect artistic, philosophical and practical forms of cultural wisdom from East and West, North and South and to further develop them into useful forms that inform and inspire the intercultural art of living … so that people interact as willing players in an in-between space (as defined by Hannah Arendt) and also keep in touch with their core selves, so that we can fully develop and happily share our world with each other in a spirit of cooperation, openness and hospitality.
Hospitality, respect and openness and other shared values of humanity are what truly connect people as sisters and brothers ― open to a common playing field for all!
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Images tell a story
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