FacultyMeet advaya’s teachers
Advaya’s global faculty blends science, practice, and story bringing localised, multidimensional wisdom to a shared learning space.
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
Learn the transformative potential of Dionysian rituals and rave culture to catalyze ecstasy, liberation, and social revolution.
course
Rewilding Mythology
Reawaken ancient myths and their transformative power to reconnect humanity with nature, culture, and collective wisdom for modern times.
course
The Wild Feminine
Explore the Wild Feminine’s power and history, reclaiming balance beyond patriarchy through inspiring voices, healing, and gender liberation insights.
article
Unmasking Dionysus: history, culture and legacy
The cultural and social context he emerged from.
article
Dionysus: Echoes of an Ancient Future
The most intriguing deity and the role of ecstasy in his rituals.
article
Tracing ancient motherlines
To reclaim 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?