WELCOME

to On the Altar

A rotating mix of sound, image, and inspiration that keeps Mayura humming. Here’s what’s keeping the lights on in the temple of my brain: songs on repeat, books I can’t shut up about, and a few things Larry dropped off unannounced.

[Seriously though, WHO’S LARRY?]

STUDIO NOTES

Notes, artifacts, fragments, works in progress, thoughts, the occasional argument with Larry. You know, things from the Mayura studio.

Studio Notes
The Long Middle
The Long Middle

On Creativity as Relationship with Life. A reflection on gardening, artmaking, and the long often invisible middle where creativity unfolds as a relationship with time, experience, and connection.

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Somewhere in the Building
Somewhere in the Building

Creating a Home for an Interdisciplinary Creative Practice. Somewhere in the middle of linking posts and rearranging rooms, I realized I wasn’t just building a platform for offerings. I was (finally!) building a place where my work itself could live.

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Trusting the Pie
Trusting the Pie

A studio note from Imbolc on winter work, small systems, stored harvests, and learning to trust what’s already been planted. And pie, of course.

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On Authority, Accountability, and the Ground Action Stands On
On Authority, Accountability, and the Ground Action Stands On

In moments of collective confusion and demand for response, I return to a simple question: “Do I believe that those who create and enforce the rules should also be bound by them?”

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On the Toad (Still)
On the Toad (Still)

For reasons I still don’t fully understand, my phone has been autocorrecting the word road to toad for years. At some point, I stopped fixing it. Oddly, no one asked for clarification.

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Dear Unknown Friend
Dear Unknown Friend

The artifact resurfaced recently through my own deck, by way of another card, which puzzled me until I did some quiet raccoon-ing through old material. It feels a little like a system returning one of its own early seeds once enough time, distance, and experience have unfolded.

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One Eye on Imbolc
One Eye on Imbolc

Right now I’m in that familiar early-season in-between where seeds are ordered, a new grow-light setup is sitting in boxes unassembled, and the landscaper is measuring for new veggie beds while nothing is actually growing yet. The gardener in me is keeping one eye on Imbolc.

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The Plan Problem
The Plan Problem

A few years ago, in a moment of scheduling chaos, I wrote on it, “Maybe the problem is having a plan” as a rather exasperated joke. At the time it felt ridiculous. How would anything ever get done without a plan?

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BROWSE MY DECK

See some selections of the cards in my personal Mayura Oracle deck right now. These are my own designs and illustrations.

WHAT’S ON REPEAT

See what I’m listening to on repeat right now.

Music is a non-negotiable part of my creative process, but this “playlist” is random, ever-rotating, and updated pretty much whenever I think of it. At any given moment, it probably isn’t coherent.

May Larry’s odds be ever in your favor.

Click to check out
the playlist on Spotify.

WARNING

THE READING LIST

See what books are cluttering up my nightstand, end tables, desk…

The Secret of Light, Walter Russell (1947)
This book is out of print, but you can find it used through major marketplaces.

Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda (1946):
A word on this book. If you’re trying to figure out which edition to purchase, I recommend sourcing the original reprint of the 1946 edition published by Crystal Clarity Publishers (Ananda).

The Language of Creation: Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis: A Commentary, Matthieu Pageau (2018)
You can find this book in print on Amazon.

The Artful Universe: An Introduction to the Vedic Religious Imagination, William Mahony (1997)
You can find this book in print on Amazon.

FROM THE ARCHIVE

Foundational texts and other stuff that shaped Mayura.

  • Autobiography of a Yogi

    Paramhansa Yogananda (1946)

    A spiritual classic that introduced millions to the philosophy and practice of yoga, Yogananda’s autobiography chronicles his journey from India to the West and his encounters with saints, scientists, and seekers of divine truth. At once mystical and deeply human, it remains one of the most influential books on the inner path.

    Read for free courtesy Crystal Clarity Publishers/ Ananda Worldwide

  • Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism

    Anonymous (Valentin Tomberg) (2002)

    Originally published anonymously, Meditations on the Tarot is a cornerstone text of modern Hermetic philosophy. Each “letter” explores one of the twenty-two Major Arcana as an emblem of spiritual initiation, blending Christian mysticism, symbolism, and contemplative practice into a single, radiant path of understanding.

    Find this book.

  • Critique of Judgment

    Immanuel Kant (1987)

    Kant’s third Critique bridges reason and imagination, offering a philosophy of beauty and purpose that remains foundational to aesthetics. Its exploration of the sublime, the harmonious play of faculties, and the bridge between nature and freedom continues to influence art theory and spiritual philosophy alike.

    Find this book.

  • Immanuel Kant's Third Critique: Applying the Aesthetic Lens

    Tiffany Govender (2019)

    Written as the capstone for the M.A. in Humanities at Hood College, this thesis explores how Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Judgment illuminates the relationship between aesthetic experience and the search for transcendence. Through the lens of Caspar David Friedrich’s landscapes and Michael Ondaatje’s novel The English Patient, it traces the meeting point between philosophy, art, and the imagination.


    Read this work

  • The Idea of the Holy

    An Inquiry into the Non-Rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine and Its Relation to the Rational
    Rudolf Otto (2010 reprint)

    A classic in the study of religious experience, Otto’s The Idea of the Holy introduces the concept of the numinous—that mysterium tremendum et fascinans at the heart of all encounters with the sacred. Blending theology and phenomenology, it remains a foundational text for understanding awe, reverence, and the ineffable dimensions of spiritual life.

    Find this book

  • The Kantian Sublime: From Morality to Art

    Paul Crowther (1991)

    In this concise yet penetrating study, Crowther examines Kant’s theory of the sublime as a bridge between moral consciousness and aesthetic experience. Moving beyond fear and grandeur, he reveals how the sublime operates as a key to freedom, imagination, and the formation of value in art and philosophy.

    Find this book

  • Light in the Dark Room: Photography and Loss

    Jay Prosser (2004)

    Blending memoir, theory, and visual culture, Prosser explores how photography mediates memory, mourning, and the self. Through writers and photographers from Barthes to Woolf, he reveals the photograph as both relic and resurrection—an image caught between light and loss, presence and absence.

    Find this book

  • Shadows on the Path: Revelations and Pitfalls on the Spiritual Journey

    Abdi Assadi (2016)

    A clear-eyed companion for seekers and teachers alike, Assadi’s Shadows on the Path examines the hidden ego traps that arise in spiritual work. With compassion and precision, he maps how power, projection, and self-deception can distort even the most sincere journey toward awakening—and how awareness restores integrity to the path.

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  • Blue Arabesque: A Search for the Sublime

    Patricia Hampl (2006)

    Part memoir, part art history, Hampl’s Blue Arabesque traces the author’s lifelong pursuit of beauty after a chance encounter with Matisse’s Woman Before an Aquarium. Through travels, reflection, and luminous prose, she explores how art invites us into the transcendent—an ordinary life touched by the sublime.

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  • The English Patient

    Michael Ondaatje (1993)

    Set amid the ruins of World War II, Ondaatje’s luminous novel traces four lives converging in an Italian villa—each haunted by love, loss, and memory. Through its fractured structure and lyrical prose, the book becomes a meditation on beauty, impermanence, and the search for identity that echoes far beyond history.

    Find this book

ABOUT TIFFANY

Designer | Artist | Mayura Creator

I’m Tiffany Govender, the artist and designer behind Mayura. With a background in visual communications, fine art, and the humanities, my work centers on creative process, how work takes form, where it gets stuck, and what helps it continue over time.

Mayura grew out of my own creative practice and now functions as an open studio where that process is shared, alongside tools, sessions, and resources for others working through their own creative questions.

Learn More About Me