NOTE: You can see all my collage artwork and other graphic designs on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/seradrakethebookwyrm/

A Tiphareth chapter quote:

Living room details. Of all the aspects of Ancilla I have a hard time illustrating, what I find most difficult are pictures that come close to matching my mental image of "Magister's" apartment.

 It's a quirky apartment as far as apartments go. 

It's in an imaginary house that was split up into imaginary apartment units, like many of the old houses in Highland Square, on the west side of Akron, have been. That imaginary building sits at the end of a real street where currently the map shows nothing but scrub brush and an electrical station near a set of railroad tracks. Across the street is the north end of a real cemetery. And yes, once a year, that part of town indeed gets noisy because of the sober biker clubs making a pilgrimage to Dr Bob's grave as part of the annual Alcoholics Anonymous convention. 

Inside the imaginary apartment are some details that are almost impossible to find exact clip art and public domain art replicas of. The steamer chest that acts as a living room coffee table, for instance. The out-of-date sofa that somehow is NOT an orange and brown velvet monstrosity from the 1970s. The futon that sits on a slightly altered frame, in a room that, like the rest of the apartment, is lined with books. The folding card table that "Lydia's" hand-me-down computer sits on when "Lydia" moves to Oregon...

It's all very specific.

I took a stab at it anyway.

I'm a Jacqueline Carey fan. Of course, you know I'm going to work in a mandrake reference at some point.

Another one of Petrarch's sonnets. I imagine "Magister" reading Petrarch to himself after he has parted ways with his wife. It captures his melancholy and longing so well.

Another reference to that Song of Solomon quote.

Thorns again...

This tile uses a quote from the "Hod" chapter. I included sheet music because of the themes contained in that chapter. I also used as the bottom/background image a snapshot of a bedroom containing a low mattress that looks almost like how I picture "Magister's" futon.

Playing with the Persephone/Hades imagery that I inserted into "Hod," "Netzach," and "Tiphareth." The pretty white flowers in the forest are asphodels, the flowers of the Underworld.

Meeting cute.

Day and night... night and day... This tile uses quotes from the "Chesed" chapter, but it was inspired by a Cole Porter song.

Let's talk about Abraxas, shall we? 

"The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas." - Herman Hesse, Demian

Abraxas represents several things in Hesse's Gnostic masterpiece. Abraxas is the union of opposites; Abraxas is wisdom and gnosis; Abraxas is God.

I thought I'd bring this up because Ancilla is as much about the union of opposite polarities as it is about anything else.

Doves. If you've seen the movie Stealing Heaven, you'll know why I include them. I get a little heavy-handed with the Heloise and Abelard parallels sometimes.

Another one showing some "off-screen," behind-the-scenes grieving on the part of "Magister." You never get to see directly through his eyes the way you do through "ancilla's," and maybe that's a kindness to him. He's always been private about his emotions, sometimes a little too private for his own good.

A cup of tea and a billet doux... 

If you look closely, you'll see that the words in the background are one of Shakespeare's sonnets written to his younger male lover, about his getting old. 

And lastly, here is a rather basic dark academia-themed collage.