storytelling

Quest 2: The Golden Ratio

Wisdom from all over the world

Cultures from all over the world have symbols of natural wisdom, such as the Golden Ratio. This wisdom is passed on through proverbs, for example, “What you would not want done to you, do not do so to another” and in (animal) stories with a moral from the story about the cleverness of the fox, the crow or the spider. As well as in rituals such as harvest and 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 wisdom from cultural traditions and cocreatively develops it into contemporary artistic forms:

  • as a culture-binding language for the benefit of diversity and inclusion
  • for developing transcultural practices for global citizenship 

The artistic educational materials

Through artistic educational materials, functioning as a Golden Ratio — partly published on the Wisdom Web (Quest 1) and also shared on the Encounter Days, through Workshops and Masterclasses as well as being documented on the QFWF video channel (Quest 3) — personal growth and community building are facilitated:

  • to get to know other cultures and wisdom traditions
  • to promote intercultural communication, art forms and philosophies
  • to develop unifying cultural practices.

The Golden Ratio as Quest 2 consists of an artistically designed and culturally diverse palette of materials that are grouped around particular themes; such as the wisdom taught through play, proverbs, myths and animal stories. The QfWf has developed two series of (e)books: the Animal Wisdom Collection and the Wisdom Collection. From 2024 the three Quests are flowing together on DeGuldenSnede, a digital platform dedicated to the personal and collective intercultural art of living. The QfWf hopes to realize an Intercultural Meeting House for the Golden Ratio as a promising future project.

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 2025-02

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Projects

Golden RatioGame for WisdomAnimal WisdomProjectsSoul Circle

Dirk de Wachter

Each year, the Quest for Wisdom foundation develops an intercultural program around a socially relevant theme to realize its goal of promoting the art of living as global citizens. It presents this program both through various (artistic and digital) media, and in live encounters. 

Honorary member Dirk De Wachter

Fresh from my liver bubbles the feeling that these initiatives are essential for a society, bottom-up encounters, where humanity appears in difference.
Warmheartedly,

Personal communication, 4th of April 2019


Global Citizenship of the Street: 2023-2024

Greg Suffanti telling about his Migrant-Aquarelles

In the Report on an experiment “Global Citizenship of the Street” the development of this QfWf-project has been described as an triptych with three phases. The first phase consisted of remembering the colonial past of slavery by means of research and essays by Fred de Haas who adds to the deplorable facts the beauty of Caribean poetry and music, reflecting the intercultural identities; also: together with drawings by Josee Tesser with sharpness and humour (fase 1). it will be published in 2025 as a book (Post) Koloniale wa(a)r(d)en as a coproduction with Garant Publishers. Collecting constructive ingrediënts and the world dreams of Global Citizenship of the QfWf-circle with painting, singing, dancing and other (inter)cultural expressions (phase 2) resulted in sharing the developed programme with social groups and partnering organizations in an experimental way, as the communication with the Oukrainian refugees, living at the Regenbooggroep could only be in the language of the arts. Other presentations were in the Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam, located in Weesp and Reigersbos (fase 3).

QfWf-Regenboog Paradijsvogel-Kosmisch Ei – Camile Smeets

Zo is Kunst als verwondermiddel gepresenteerd in het documentatieboek Amor Mundi en is Amor Fati ―  spelende wijsheid voor de kosmopolis ― als boek en levenskunstspel ontwikkeld en zijn er meer verhalen en dromen van wereldburgers verzameld op het hiertoe gelanceerde platform De Gulden Snede. Het cocreatief ontwikkelde interculturele kunstzinnige programma is uitgevoerd in samenwerking met de stichting Culturele Droomwevers en stichting Curinesa, met zelfstandig gevestigde kunstenaars, zoals Camile Smeets, die het keramische beeld van de Regenboog Paradijsvogel met Kosmisch Ei maakte, en met de inheems Surinaamse culturele groep Wehpokamanong, die haar culturele erfgoed aan de jonge generaties in Nederland doorgeeft.

Animal wisdom-programma ― verhalende dierenwijsheid

Het Fonds voor Zuidoost heeft — in samenwerking met het Prins Bernard Cultuurfonds — in 2020 een kleine subsidie aan de QfWf toegekend ter ondersteuning van haar interculturele storytelling programma Animal Wisdom:

“Fonds voor Zuidoost is unaniem enthousiast over jouw project. Hoewel ze het project ambitieus vinden, vinden zij het een waardig initiatief. Ze vinden het mooi hoe je met dit project kinderen kennis laat maken met de veelkleurigheid van de multiculturele samenleving.
In de ogen van het buurtcomité leveren jullie een belangrijke interculturele bijdrage die op veel scholen kan worden gebruikt.
Er is vertrouwen in de organisatie en in de lesstof die al eerder ontwikkeld is.
Zij juichen het dan ook toe dan jullie gaan digitaliseren en wensen jullie veel succes.”

Tekening Nour Kayali 2021 voor Animal Wisdom

Het Interculturele Storytelling Programma zou als een –interculturele les voor scholieren- worden opgeleverd, waarvoor dieren wijsheid uit verteltradities uit de vier windstreken zijn verzameld. Het doel was om de oude wijsheid in educatieve artistieke vormen te gieten voor hedendaagse (jonge) oren en zowel culturele diversiteit als transculturele patronen te ontdekken. Het programma was tijdens de corona lockdown ontwikkeld en werd verzameld op een speciaal hiertoe ontworpen website Animal Wisdom. met dierenverhalen uit alle windstreken, zoals een Great Goose Rap uit de boeddhistische Jatakatamala traditie. Tevens is er educatief materiaal ontwikkeld, dat aan scholen is aangeboden.

Een Interculturele les

De wijsheid van de purperen octopus staat symbool voor Animal Wisdom — Chrisje Ronde

De interculturele les over Dieren Wijsheid biedt een basis voor de ontwikkeling van meer lesmodulen voor (wereld-) burgerschapsvorming, ook voor het voortgezet onderwijs. De presentatie van het materiaal door middel van meerdere media spreekt tot de verbeelding en toont hoe diersymboliek culturele grenzen overschrijdt. De artistieke vormgeving van dierenwijsheid toont de kleurrijke eenheid in verscheidenheid van culturen.

Het project is in 2021 gepresenteerd in de Bibliotheek in Amsterdam Zuid-Oost. Met twee workshops voor een inleidend en verdiepend programma:

Workshop 1: When Animals Narrate Cultures …
Workshop 2: Animals as Wisdom Seekers

Beide workshops en de kosteloos te downloaden Interculturele les Dieren Wijsheid draagt bij tot “Burgerschapsvorming, diversiteit en inclusie” voor de basisschool en staan beschreven in de QFWF-storytelling-Project-Eindrapportage.

Animal Wisdom — e-boeken

De wereldwijd voorkomende dierenverhalen dragen zowel wijsheid over het samenleven van dieren over, ter bevordering van ecologisch bewustzijn, als dat ze een spiegel vormen voor de menselijke samenleving en aandacht vragen voor thema’s als diversiteit en inclusie in het onderwijs. Daartoe heeft de QfWf als een vervolgproject op de interculturele dierenwijsheid lesmodule een reeks (e)boeken uitgegeven. Deze Animal Wisdom reeks is generiek van opzet zodat zij in veel educatieve contexten kan worden toegepast — zoals het voortgezet onderwijs en (hoger) beroepsonderwijs. Een Animal Wisdom game is in ontwikkeling.

Aanschaf van educatief materiaal

De financiële opbrengst van het educatieve materiaal — dat door vrijwilligers wordt gerealiseerd — komt ten goede aan de verdere ontwikkeling van projecten van de QfWf.


Game for wisdom ― het Rad van interculturele levenskunst!

Het eerste project van de Quest for Wisdom was in haar oprichtingsjaar 2016 met de Digitale spelvorm Game for Wisdom. Daartoe werd het Rad van interculturele levenskunst ontwikkeld en mythische verhalen, symbolen en spreekwoorden verzameld uit alle windstreken.

De speler van het spel wordt met zeven vragen uitgedaagd de eigen opvatting over levensgeluk te beproeven met visies van levenskunst uit de vier windrichtingen. In de game zijn 20 verhalen en 80 symbolen verwerkt uit verteltradities wereldwijd en geordend naar het Rad van interculturele levenskunst.

QfWf-podcasts en meer moois op De Gulden Snede

Mitra Muijen

De QfWf wil via haar digitale platform De Gulden Snede elk jaar een podcast beschikbaar stellen, waarin het QfWf-jaarthema met een expert op het gebied of een wereldburger met wilde haren wordt besproken. 

Voor het breed toegankelijk maken van de Quest for Wisdom zijn er behalve artistieke vormen meer digitale educatieve middelen en voor de jonge generatie aantrekkelijke educatieve vormen zoals games en animaties ter bevordering van diversiteit en inclusie en 21e-eeuwse vaardigheden in onderwijscontexten.

Een concept is ontwikkeld voor een (digitale, hybride of levende) spelvorm vanuit het interculturele storytelling programme Animal wisdom — Animal Wind-streken.
Hoewel de aanvraag voor financiering bij het KNAW Pilotfonds Wetenschapscommunicatie door Wetenschappers niet is toegekend, is er een netwerk gebouwd met onderzoekers van de Universiteit Leiden en met het African Research Institute van Óbudai University in Budapest, Hongarije.
De Universiteit Leiden heeft via haar online nieuws aandacht aan dit project gegeven.

Op de Ontmoetingsdagen 2020 en 2021 is content ontwikkeld aan de hand van storytelling, dans, spel, muziek en beeldende kunst.
Deze zijn deels te zien via het QFWF-video-kanaal met animaties en filmopnamen.

Update 2025-02

Projects Read More »

Animal Wisdom site

Golden RatioGame for WisdomAnimal WisdomProjectsSoul Circle

Narrative Animal Wisdom

The QFWF continues to collect animal stories from all over the world on a separate website www….?. The overarching goal of this storytelling programme is to present the symbolism in the narratives in various artistic forms, sharing the intercultural wisdom about how to be a successful and happy human being and how to build successful and happy communities.

Animal stories can be found in all corners of the world in a colorful diversity of cultural genres. Through their differences, these stories express a cross cultural elemental wisdom that these animals embody.

By developing this quest for wisdom perspective into (e-)books, teaching modules and other educational forms, these old treasures are preserved and made freshly available for new generations.

The good life in the cosmopolis

The crosscultural significance of the narrative use of animals as embodying wisdom and natural strength forms a pillar of opportunity for building bridges between cultures. Goal of the programme include the strengthening ecological and cosmopolitan values of global citizenship — such as inclusion, cultural diversity, ecological awareness and 21st century skills. In appealing artistic and educational forms, the QFWF aims to reach different target groups: children, students, parents, teachers, professionals, managers and administrators.

Further reading on the development of the programme Animal Wisdom in a series of articles (NL):
De Gulden Snede: deel 1deel 2deel 3deel 4deel 5deel 6deel 7deel 8

The QFWF Storytelling Programme: narrative wisdom from all corners of the world

Sea Mermaid — drawing Chrisje Ronde

Communities from all over the world pass on their cultural wisdom gathered over generations in the form of stories, proverbs, symbolism and rituals.

The QFWF Storytelling program unlocks this intercultural source of wisdom and gives it appealing artistic forms, focused on connecting the stories and transcultural symbolism!

Animals embody elemental wisdom

Animals represent an elementary wisdom, they display clever and vicious tricks as well as being paragons of virtue. However differently the animals are presented, according to the specific cultural and historical context in which the stories were created, in all cultural traditions animals reflect basic natural strength and wisdom.

Beautiful forms of the latter are found in the classic tales of the of the Hindu Panchatantra and the Buddhist Jatakatamala.
Also, the famous stories of the Ghanaian Anansi as well as the less famous but extraordinary adventures of cricket, chameleon and other Malagasy hero’s.

Bolinus brandaris, the purple snake — drawing Chrisje Ronde

Animals in myths, legends and fairy tales present a wise natural force: proverbial is the wisdom of the owl and the cunning of spider Anansi.

Birds in fairy tales and myths often convey messages, like the raven for example, as a mediator between the world of the gods, the humans and the underworld.

In addition to similarities, there are also interesting cultural differences. For example, almost all cultures have stories about dragons. Although they differ in shape on the one hand — sometimes more serpentine, sometimes more like a giant bird or like some kind of dinosaur — they all embody an enormous (super)natural power.

Read examples of Animal Stories from the series on the website — Animal wisdom

Update 2022-07

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Quest for Wisdom foundation

  • 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.

    Cultural ANBI status

    The QfWf is acknowledged as organization with an culturele ANBI status (NL).

    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 has realized the “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 collective and individueal dreams of global citizenship in images, music, dance, stories and other expressions of (inter)cultural heritage (phase 2) culminating in a social experiment with collaborating partner organizations (phase 3) for global citizenship. The result is an intercultural program with the wisdom and beauty from the four corners of the world.

    The QfWf 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 programme; 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 culminated in a final event in the fall of 2024.

    First there was the presentatation of Amor Mundi, the exhibition and the presentation of the QfWf-documentation book in the Pubic Library of Amsterdam (OBA) in Weesp on the 28th of September 2024. Especially the series of aquarelles of Greg Suffanti, in which the harsh (anti) migration policy is denounced and migrants are presented as persons like you and me and their human stories. Also Robin Stemerding, Nour Kayali en Louis van Marissing have contributed to the exhibition. Then the final event was organised on the 19th of October 2024 together with the residents of the Regenbooggroep, the organisation that gives shelter to migrants, refugies, homeless and people in need: sharing an intercultural programme with music, dance and sharing food from each others cultural kitches. A ceramic statue, made by Camile Smeets was presented: this Rainbow Paradise Bird with Cosmic Egg incorporates the world dreams of the intercultural project group. On the 25th of Januari 2025 the exhibition Amor Mundi was reopened in another OBA location, Reigersbos, together with the presentation of the book Amor Fati by giving previews of the seven chapters, in which life themes as world citizens are discussed and portrayed. Read more in Angela Gilds review on intercultural meetings.

    The need for an intercultural art of living

    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 developmental path of ‘the multicultural society’ and visualises its mission with the Wheel of the Intercultural Art of Living.

    The QfWf sees Global Citizenship as the right answer facing the collective fear for strangers, migrants and ‘the others’. Instead of hatred and agression we follow dialogical and spiritual traditions, that see ‘otherness’ as a call for openness and inclusion.

  • The intercultural art of living is the ability to move as nomads between cultures and to be able to see the beauty of cultural differences. To enhance the art of living as world citizens the QfWf-Soul Circle organises every year around a social relevant theme an intercultural programme and presents this on its digital platform de gulden snede as well as by living encounters such as the yearly QfWf-Meeting Day.

    Just like the beauty of the Golden Ratio in natural forms such as the rhythmical growth of leaves and snail shells, as well as in cultural expressions such as the principles how cathedrals are built and the musical harmony in chords.

    This QfWf-vision and mission to contribute to a cosmopolic world order and culture of inclusion is the core of our

  • Quest for Wisdom, meandering along

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

Diagram met de 17 duurzame ontwikkelingsdoelen door de V.N. op 25 September 2015 aangenomen als deel van de 2030 Agenda
Diagram met de 17 duurzame ontwikkelingsdoelen

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:

Museo Nazionale Archeologico di Taranto, Italië — foto Joke Koppius

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!

Update 2025-02

Quest for Wisdom foundation Read More »