facultyexplore advaya’s teachers
Explore advaya's faculty of teachers, scientists, practitioners, philosophers and storytellers, who share multidimensional, local and diverse narratives from across the world.
Bayo Akomolafe
Sophie Strand
Satish Kumar
Vandana Shiva
Veronica Strang
Manda Scott
Beloved Sara Zaltash
David Abram
Dr Andreas Weber
David Whyte
Helena Norberg-Hodge
Dr. Predrag Slijepcevic
Charles Eisenstein
Aisha Paris Smith
Brontë Velez
Chiara Baldini
Chiara Baldini is a raver, researcher and freelance curator from Florence, Italy. She investigates the evolution of the ecstatic cult in the West, particularly in Minoan Crete, ancient Greece and Rome, contributing to anthologies, psychedelic conferences and festivals.
Chiara Baldini is a researcher, author, speaker and freelance curator from Florence (Italy). She investigates the evolution of the ecstatic cult in the West, particularly in Minoan Crete, ancient Greece and Rome, contributing to anthologies, psychedelic conferences and festivals. She was the program curator of Boom Festival’s cultural area Liminal Village from 2010 to 2023. She has co-curated the anthology “Psychedelic Mysteries of the Feminine” investigating the intersection between the feminine principle and altered states of consciousness. She is currently a PhD candidate at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in the Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness program. She lives between Italy and Portugal and she expresses her deep love for music by often playing as DJ Clandestina.
Stay in contact with Chiara via email on [email protected] or Instagram here @iamalwayschiara
course
Dionysus: Rave, Ritual and Revolution
Chiara Baldini delves into the mythological, historical and anthropological dimensions of the Dionysian cult, a cultural lineage that accompanied Western history since primordial times. One that defines our identity in deep resonance with other non-Western cultures and can support us in rediscovering meaningful aspects of European and, more specifically, Mediterranean indigeneity.
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Rewilding Mythology
For most of human history, myth was a durable mode of knowledge transmission, kept alive and resilient by the breath-laced web of communal storytelling. But the rise of empire depended on the deracination of mythologies. Just as landscapes were stolen and terraformed so were whole pantheons uprooted from their social and ecological contexts. How can we reroot, rewild, and retell?
course
The Wild Feminine
The voice of the feminine in its diverse forms and expressions is rising and being heard again.
article
Unmasking Dionysus: history, culture and legacy
Ahead of advaya's upcoming online course: Dionysus: Rave, Ritual and Revolution, we speak with curator and host Chiara Baldini all about Dionysus. What is the cultural and social context that the god, also known as Bacchus, comes from? Weaving stories from pre-patriarchal, goddess-worshipping archaic civilisations, to the Roman empire and the Bacchanalia's clamorous and illegal arrival and disruption of it, to interrogating the possibilities of the traces of Dionysus' legacy today, this lively conversation promises an informative introduction into the queer, rambunctious, complex figure of Dionysus.
article
Dionysus: Echoes of an Ancient Future
Ahead of advaya's upcoming online course: Dionysus: Rave, Ritual and Revolution, we speak with curator and host Chiara Baldini all about Dionysus. We dove into the mythology, history and culture around Dionysus, one of the most intriguing deities of Western culture. The god of fertility, dance, vegetation, wild nature, ambiguity and egalitarianism sounds like the perfect match who will not disappoint us with the gifts of his mysteries. What role did ecstatic practices play in his rituals? Who were his followers and what were the reactions of the Greek and Roman authorities to their unruliness? What are the pre-patriarchal elements of these practices and what can we learn from them today?
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Tracing ancient motherlines
The conversation between Chiara Baldini and Sylvia Listeadt explores non-patriarchal societies, the role of women as stewards of the land and water, and the need for reclaiming ancient practices for healing, reciprocity, and social justice
film
Unmasking Dionysus: history, culture and legacy
Ahead of advaya's upcoming online course: Dionysus: Rave, Ritual and Revolution, we speak with curator and host Chiara Baldini all about Dionysus. What is the cultural and social context that the god, also known as Bacchus, comes from? Weaving stories from pre-patriarchal, goddess-worshipping archaic civilisations, to the Roman empire and the Bacchanalia's clamorous and illegal arrival and disruption of it, to interrogating the possibilities of the traces of Dionysus' legacy today, this lively conversation promises an informative introduction into the queer, rambunctious, complex figure of Dionysus.
film
Dionysus: Echoes of an Ancient Future
Ahead of advaya's upcoming online course: Dionysus: Rave, Ritual and Revolution, we speak with curator and host Chiara Baldini all about Dionysus. In this webinar, we dove into the mythology, history and culture around Dionysus, one of the most intriguing deities of Western culture. The god of fertility, dance, vegetation, wild nature, ambiguity and egalitarianism sounds like the perfect match who will not disappoint us with the gifts of his mysteries. What role did ecstatic practices play in his rituals? Who were his followers and what were the reactions of the Greek and Roman authorities to their unruliness? What are the pre-patriarchal elements of these practices and what can we learn from them today?
film
The Bacchanalia Affair: the beginning of the end of an era
In Module 4 of Rewilding Mythology, Chiara Baldini presents the story of Dionysus, a sacred masculine that represents something different from the masculinity we know in patriarchy, something that has always existed in parallel. Chiara shares the story of the Bacchanalia Affair, how Dionysus, exported into Rome, was a clamorous rebellion against hierarchy, order, and the wielding of the sword. As the god of celebration, fermentation, and rebellion, the Roman empire wanted to repress what he brought to Rome, and they did: successfully. Thus began to end of an era, dating back to the goddess culture in prehistory. What lessons does this hold for us today?
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Webinar: Ancient Motherlines
Are famous Greek goddesses like Hera, Demeter and Aphrodite her descendents? What kinds of rituals, practices and myths were associated with her worship, and how long did they survive in Europe? Is there an alternate history of Europe that we can tell by following motherlines like these, instead of the fatherlines we are used to hearing about? And how is the wild, ecstatic god Dionysus connected to her, and to the memory of the matrilineal Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe? Together, Sylvia and Chiara will discuss their individual but overlapping research on these topics for the first time in a public online conversation. You will come away with a deeper understanding of the history of the Goddess in Europe, and of the patterns of being beyond patriarchy that still exist, just out of sight, in her lands.