our films

Webinar: The Descent and Rising of Childbirth

This conversation between Samara Concepcion, host of the Birth: A New Story course, and Carly Mountain, will explore how the descent and rising of childbirth relates to the myth of Inanna and how essential the initiation of childbirth is for our personal and collective health.

Webinar: A New Love Narrative

Love is not just something we feel—it is a way of knowing, of being, a force that holds life together. At the center of our being, the heart is more than a physical organ; it is an organ of perception, connection, and deep intelligence.

Webinar: Age on Your Own Terms

Join Sierra Campbell for Age on Your Own Terms: Ageing Well in Today’s World, an enlightening webinar that offers a fresh perspective on ageing, inviting us to honor it as a sacred and empowering part of life.

Webinar: Cultivating a Dream Practice

In this webinar, ahead of the launch of her 6-module course on dreams, new Advaya teacher and dream researcher Marieke McKenna will discuss ways in which to engage with your dreamworld that will enhance your relationship to your mind, emotions, creativity and spirituality.

Webinar: Birth and Belonging

“Our world can only mean to us what we meant to the world that raised us.” Mia Kalef Join a conversation between Samara Concepcion, host of the Birth: A New Story course, and Mia Kalef, to explore how our earliest experiences in the womb and at birth connect us or disconnect us from our sustainable place in the ecosystem. Learn how, through pregnancy and birth, we all receive imprints that inform our relationship to life, the world we live in, and our sense of belonging within it. This conversation will seek to reveal how we can collectively co-create the world we want to live in through the way we approach pregnancy and birth as experiences that lay the foundations for all that is to come.

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.

Webinar: Rituals of Sacred Sites

Do you ever wonder why certain places hold deep spiritual power across cultures, or what makes a site truly "sacred"? These locations serve as portals to the more-than-human world, connecting us to ancestors and the more-than-human.

Webinar: Secret History of the Witches

Uncover the true stories behind the women labeled as witches - From herbal wisdom to spirit flight, learn the sacred practices of these remarkable women. Embark on a journey with Max Dashu as she illuminates the hidden cultural heritages surrounding witches, weaving together language, archaeology, and early medieval literature. The word ‘witch’ evokes strong reactions, some shaped by a millennium of persecution—but it also resonates with much older spiritual heritages having to do with women’s wisdom and power. It is time to restore cultural memory of the wisewomen and of our ancestral heritages which were not simply “lost,” but suppressed. In this course, we uncover the rich legacies of the witches as we trace them through the cultural record: oral tradition, historical literature and witch trial records.

Webinar: Thriving in Times of Change

“The ecotone refutes the very concept of isolated binaries and holds a spectrum of possibility because it is neither this, nor that, is is something else entirely” Abigail Rose Clarke

Webinar: The Psychic, Paranormal, and Supernatural: Exploring the Edges of Consciousness

In this nurturing space, you will delve into the realms beyond ordinary perception, gaining insights into altered states of consciousness, intuition, and the potential for human transformation. Drawing on wisdom from his acclaimed works like "Breaking Open the Head" and "2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl," Pinchbeck will invite you to question the materialist, empiricist worldview that has long dominated our civilization, and reflect on the limits and impacts of this outdated paradigm. This webinar offers new tools to explore reality with both rationality and wonder, merging science and mysticism, spirit and matter. Discover how the imagination can serve as a transpersonal creative force, capable of reawakening dormant powers of the Psyche in a time of universal need. Prepare to expand your awareness and explore the fascinating possibilities at the frontier of consciousness, as we collectively stand on the cusp of establishing a transformational paradigm and alternative ontology.

Webinar: Fairytales of the Feminine

Join renowned author and mythologist Sharon Blackie for an enlightening webinar titled Fairytales of the Feminine. This webinar explores fairytales' rich connections to feminine archetypes and wisdom. Gain deeper understanding of fairytales' transformative potential, learn to harness their narratives for personal growth and empowerment. Whether you are a storyteller, a seeker of wisdom, or simply enchanted by myth, this webinar promises to inspire and illuminate the path to feminine self-discovery. Dr. Sharon Blackie's acclaimed books, lectures, and teaching programs focus on reimagining women’s stories and the relevance of myth, fairy tales, and folk traditions to today's personal, cultural, and environmental challenges.

Webinar: Sacred Sites, the importance of ancient wisdom in regenerative futures

What role can sacred sites play in mitigating the great challenges facing humanity? What role can humanity play in protecting sacred sites, many of which contain some of the areas of highest biodiversity in the world?

Webinar: When Women Were the Land

Trace pathways of myth, archaeology, nature connection back into pre-patriarchal cultures indigenous to these lands, cultures that centered the earth and the female divine.

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One Cut Away from Leaking, Veda Austin

In this mind-bending webinar, Veda Austin, a pioneering water researcher, takes us on a profound journey into the depths of water's conscious intelligence. From her life-altering car accident to the miraculous healing powers of alkaline spring water, Veda's personal experiences unveil the profound mysteries that lie beneath the surface.

Webinar: Reclaiming Water Guardianship with Charlotte Pulver

Discover how water connects the past, the present moment, and future, and the importance of water guardianship.

The Rebel Element: Lessons on Liberation From Water

This webinar explores lessons from water on liberation, healing, and transformation in a time where these are sorely needed.

The Science Underground: Webinar with Dr. Patricia Kaishian & So Sinopoulos-Lloyd

Dive into the fascinating world of Queer Ecology with mycologist Dr. Patricia Kaishian and wildlife tracker So Sinopoulos-Lloyd in this thought-provoking discussion hosted by Priya Subberwal. Uncover what Queer Ecology truly means and discover how it challenges heteronormativity in science and ecological thinking. How can queer ecology challenge traditional scientific narratives and inspire new ways of relating to and understanding the more-than-human world?

Spring Equinox Special: Plant Medicine

How have plants and humans co-evolved for millennia? How might our plant relationships teach us about our landscapes and ecological communities, support our bodies in their ecosystems, and provide new perspectives and pathways towards growth and healing?

Rethinking Consciousness: Setting Science Free

The facts of science, scientific techniques and technologies are real enough. But, the philosophy of materialism that governs conventional scientific thinking is an act of faith grounded in a 19th-century ideology. It is time to set science free. In this webinar, we dialogued with Dr. Rupert Sheldrake on all things consciousness. Does it exist beyond the brain? Where did our ideas on consciousness originate from? How do we move beyond it?

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?

Living beings are constantly queering identities

In Module 6 of Rewilding Mythology, Andreas Weber challenges binary thinking from his background as a scientist and philosopher. Inspired by the rich metaphorical backgrounding of lichen for this session, Andreas shows us how actually, binary thinking in science and nature is but one story. The other, more true story perhaps, emphasises the interconnectedness of our selves in an ecosystem. Ecology is erotic and everchanging: the transformations within it make it essentially, queer.

Augury as disruption to the attention economy

In Module 5 of Rewilding Mythology, Sophie Strand and brontë velez discuss ecological literacy as a form of literacy that gets us free. One form of this is augury, the practice of acquiring and understanding omens through the observation of birds, alongside bird sits and practising bird language. brontë shares about this radical practice, what it looks like, and why it can be such a disturbance to the attention economy we live in. How can we think with our whole web of kin, as Sophie would ask?

Hospicing nightingales: human-bird collaboration in the Anthropocene

In Module 5 of Rewilding Mythology, Sophie Strand and Sam Lee converse about preserving songs and the importance of oral transmission and cultural knowledge, and together they explore ancient, collaborative relationships between humans and other species. In this clip, Sam introduces the nightingale, a species set to go extinct. How have (and can) we collaborated with these birds, learning to sing together, even as we enter a time of unprecedented species extinction? What is the importance of such correspondence between species?

Fungi are the firmament of life on Earth

In Module 4 of Rewilding Mythology, Sophie Strand interviews Giuliana Furci about her subject of expertise: fungi. Giuliana teaches us about the diversity of the fungi kin-dom, and reminds us of how essential fungi are to all life on Earth, and how, through their relationships with other organisms, they make apparent that no individual really exists, how each one of us depends on another.

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?

Fermentation and its link to the dawn of life on Earth

In Module 4 of Rewilding Mythology, David Zilber walks us through how fermentation and civilisation and agriculture are all woven together in complicated and interesting ways. "Fermentation is indelibly linked to the dawn of life on Earth," he says, diving into gelogical time, weaving the stories of the diversification of life with species evolution with the addictiveness of alcohol. How is fermentation the central node of basically all life?

The emergence of domestication in human history and its implications

In Module 3 of Rewilding Mythology, Sophie Strand and Peter Michael Bauer converse about immediate-return and delayed-return societies, emphasising the impact of food storage methods on social dynamics and ecological transformations. Discussing the shift from a relational and participatory existence to an object-oriented culture with the accumulation of domesticated animals and grain, they ask and answer: how do human societies change as we find new ways of survival? What was gained and lost, in this case as we developed the ability to store food for ourselves?

Wielding power outside the colonial paradigm: Oyalogy and Exousiance

In Module 3 of Rewilding Mythology, Sophie Strand interviews Minna Salami about an alternative, feminist conception of power, outside the colonial paradigm in which power has become conflated with oppression through violence. Minna, whose work weaves science, history, anthropology and mythology to challenge the limitations of Europatriarchal knowledge, shares about her essay Oyalogy, later Exousiance: in which she draws from her Yoruba belief system to construct a psychoactive language, animating power in a new-old paradigm of liberation and deep transformation.

Colonialism’s parasitic relationship with spirituality with Gabes Torres

What is the relationship between colonialism and spirituality? How do colonisers weaponise spirituality to further colonise the 'Global South', or colonised peoples? Unpacking 'manifest destiny', the psyche of colonialism, and weaving it together with the vulnerability which we are exposed by when minding matters of the spirit, Gabes Torres tells us that colonialism has a parasitic relationship with spirituality.

Why people seek spirituality with John Vervaeke

According to award-winning professor John Vervaeke, spirituality relates to the spirit. It is something that accompanies the scientific worldview by providing what it cannot: attention, agency, connection, to tether us to this world in ways that we cannot see or explain.

Wayfinding out of modernity’s haze with Yin Paradies

As people who live in the throes of modernity, it may feel as though we are living within a haze. Like a fish in water, though, it may be hard to realise that there is a haze to begin with. After all, as the popular quote from William Gibson goes: "We can't see our culture very well, because we see with it." In Week 4 of Re/membering our Rooted Selves, we learn from Professor Yin Paradies, an animist anarchist activist Wakaya man who is committed to understanding and interrupting the devastating impacts of modern societies.

Dark Green Gods: on hyperobjects, animism and the greening of religion

In Dark Green Religion, environmentalism intersects with religiosity to sanctify nature. It proposes a sacred view of the natural world, so could this be an answer to our ecological crises? In this webinar, Hannah Close, curator of Contemporary Spirituality, dialogues with Timothy Morton, one of the course teachers, about eco-spirituality, religion in the modern Western world, 'Nature' as a concept, hyperobjects (a term coined by Tim), and more.

Heart, Hearth and Earth: on Ecofeminism with P. Mary Viya Porselvi

Wangari Maathai says that “trees are living symbols of peace and hope. A tree has roots in the soil, yet it reaches to the sky, it tells us, in order to aspire, we need to be grounded.” In Week 3 of Re/membering our Rooted Selves, professor, researcher and author P. Mary Vidya Porselvi shares with us a key framework: Heart, Hearth, and the Earth, based on the Tamil word, ‘agam’. Expanding upon this framework, she expresses the interconnection between storytelling, ecology and women, in her culture.

Courageous vs safe conversations: holding tension with Lana Jelenjev

How can we find that—in this uncomfortable space, even though there might be tension, there is trust—we are able to hold space for each other and surrender to what can unfold? For me, that is my invitation, to notice what are my survival responses." In Week 2 of Re/membering our Rooted Selves, community alchemist and seasoned learning experience designer, strategist Lana Jelenjev walks us through some possible survival responses and guides us toward courageous (different from safe) conversations.

We rise as living suns: learning from Bakongo philosophy with Aza Njeri

We are living in troubled times. In the opening session of Re/membering our Rooted Selves, we investigate tangled systemic crises and cracks in the systems that have become even more visible with the multiple collapses. How do we move, in spite? Aza Njeri, professor of African Literature and researcher of African and Afro-diasporic Philosophies, Cultures, Literatures and Arts, one of the teachers in this opening week, shares about the Bakongo philosophy, an African philosophy of the peoples of Congo and Angola.

Storytelling our way home: weaving threads & illuminating patterns

How can storytelling help us find our way home and ground ourselves in the present of these times? In this webinar, co-curators of advaya’s upcoming course, Re/membering our Rooted Selves, Maria Clara Parente and Naida Culshaw, dialogue with some of our course teachers: Anna Denardin, Aza Njeri, Lana Jelenjev, P. Mary Vidya Porselvi and Andreza Jorge.

Our meaning crisis and the new gods of modernity

Ahead of advaya’s upcoming multi-teacher online course Contemporary Spirituality, we speak with host and curator Hannah Close about how the ways in which we seek meaning have changed, what has taken the place of grand narratives and the institution of religion, moving towards healthier sources of meaning and foundations of the ‘sacred’, the ethics of spirituality practices and cultural and religious exchanges, and more. How can we find our place within intersecting ecosystems of meaning in the modern age?

Queer ecology and collective liberation: the science underground

Ahead of advaya's upcoming online course: Queer Ecology: the science underground, with Dr. Patricia Kaishian, we speak with host and curator Patty, about how the study of mycology, ecology and queer theory can bring us towards a more expansive way of looking at the world. In this conversation, we discuss: how fungi can be our teachers in interbeing, redefining 'normal', and noticing the margins; dissolving the distinctions between humans and nature; what we have sacrificed in constructing the world as we have; and traditional ecological knowledge. How can looking at how we relate and how we think about the world lead us toward liberation?

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.

Aesthetics in nature (an autopoietic Gaia)

How do females of some bird and fish species use their sense of beauty and aesthetics to select male partners in the world of procreation? How are aesthetics an integral part of all living processes?

The symbiosis of humans and plants

In the final week of Tree of Life, our course with Imaginal, Timo Granzotti offers some parting thoughts inspired by the teachings, mythologies and cosmology of the olive tree. How can we understand and carry forth this human-plant relationship, a relationship of symbiosis? What does this have to do with the "oldest task in human history"? Timo summarises some of the lessons we can take away from this course, and what we may think about moving forward.

Modern medicine came from nature

Animal species have evolved, over 400 million years, to self-medicate. In this clip, explore a case study of ants as doctors, surgeons: a species that has developed a fascinating ability to take something from its external environment, incorporate that with its own bodily feature, to self-medicate. As it turns out, ants aren't the only ones either.

Baobab, the Great Mother Tree

In the seventh week of Tree of Life, our course with Imaginal, Isis Indriya speaks about the reverence of the baobab across Africa, how and why it is regarded as a Mother Tree, and the different creation myths associated with the baobab, the upside down tree. Timo Granzotti speaks to the art, culture and stories associated with the baobab: images that are quickly disappearing.

Cultivating response-ability amidst the trouble

Ahead of advaya's upcoming online course: Re/membering our Rooted Selves, we speak with co-curators Naida Culshaw and Maria Clara Parente on what it means to cultivate response-ability in transitional times. How does making kin and relating differently, re-storyation and shapeshifting, and reweaving ourselves into the threads of the past, help us continue to be present to the trouble, in resilient and continuous ways? This timely and timeless conversation traverses ideas of world-endings, narrative shifting and re-writing, connection through stories and art, and the importance of slowing down, which may not be what you think it is.

The acacia, a tree through the ages and generations

In the sixth week of Tree of Life, our course with Imaginal, we learn about the acacia tree: a tree that witnesses and carries the passing of lineage, from generation to generation. Isis Indriya shares about what the acacia represents in regard to human souls, liberation and consciousness. Timo Granzotti shares about the concept of dream time, and the relationship between the acacia and Aboriginal culture and lore.