The New Learning Temple

A digital collage

For her annual book and calendar project, Beatrex Quntanna was looking to create cover art that captures the concept of using the power of the mind to move beyond thinking and get into knowing, all about learning and wisdom. In a visioning session she mused that all of our old structures are dissolving and the artwork might have a representation of the old learning temple crumbling, to make way for the new. I immediately thought, no! We need to show the new learning temple!

After a few requests for a print folks could purchase and hang on their wall, I removed the book titles, which of course left a hole in the art, because I designed the illustration with the cover titles in mind. I found this short poem that for me encapsulates the feeling of cycles and the Moon, which is what Beatrex’s “Moon Book” is all about, as well as the concepts of inner-wisdom and knowing.

This was created for the “The Year of Awakening” wall calendar by Beatrex Quntanna and Michael Makay. The calendar is a companion to the annual workbook, Living by the Light of the Moon by Beatrex Quntanna, for which I designed a similar cover with a few changes.

Building the collage

I wanted to bring together the concepts of combining old wisdom and traditions with new technology and thinking. To lend a sense of structure, I wanted to create something that had a photographic quality, but wasn’t necessarily realistic—I didn’t want to build the temple to photograph it! The art just needed to be representative and symbolic. I was going for a sense of realism that engages the imagination. This led to collaging together many photos, digital graphics, and of course the Pre-Raphaelite-style painting, “Priestess of Delphi”, by John Collier.

Beatrex wanted a representation of the Divine Feminine on the cover, and I had a vision it should be the Oracle at Delphi. The inscription above the entrance to the temple there reads, “know thyself”. Pythia, the priestess and oracle, was the bridge between divine knowledge and humankind.