Six week class taught live, online, via Zoom

Sundays, September 29 - November 3, 2024
2 - 4pm ET
$ 169 Paid Patreon Members/ $189 General Admission *

*If you are interested in taking this course but are unable to afford the full price at this time, please don't hesitate to email chiara.ianeselli@gmail.com to discuss sliding-scale payment options

Please note: All classes will be recorded for those unable to attend

Join us for a deep dive into the seductive and paradoxical world of Dionysus. Over the course of six ecstatic weeks, we will explore how the cult of Dionysus (aka Bacchus) is one of the many “masks” of an ancient and possibly pre-patriarchal religion that, in Ancient Greek and Roman times, took the form of the worship of the god of vegetation, fermentation, fertility, sexuality, ecstasy, (spiked) wine, theatre, queerness, love, madness, dance and… revolution.

Together we will discover how Dionysian initiations centered around a direct, ecstatic, mystical contact with the elemental forces of nature, through frenzied dances, ingestion of psychotropic beverages and ceremonial sexuality. They represented a spiritual practice celebrating the wild and unrestrained powers of the more-than-human, where there is no rebirth without death, no sanity without madness, and no madness without sacredness; where healing can come from above or from below; and paradox is the key to understanding reality. Dionysian practice was thus replete with ritual spaces where the sharing of intensity and vulnerability fostered solidarity and the creation of bonds across social and cultural divides, as an expression of allegiance to something older than our most ancient ancestors.

With a solid foundation in academic research—as well as archaeological, iconographical and literary evidence—we will delve into the mythological, historical and anthropological dimensions of the Dionysian cult, weaving possible narratives that can support the deepening of our knowledge of the Western past, to understand the present and find inspiration for building a non-patriarchal future. The class will examine the pre-patriarchal civilization of Ancient Crete, the role of women in Dionysian rites, the mystery religions, the repression the bacchanalia by the Romans, and the Dionysian roots of the the 1960s Counterculture. We will reflect on the reasons why “indigeneity” is a term that should not be associated with Western identity, but we will also explore new ways in which we can reconnect to the ancestral wisdom of the now-European territories.

In drawing the evolution of such a unique and seductive lineage, we will also balance an idealistic view with the reality of a deeply ambiguous tradition, where nothing is what it seems, where light brings the darkness of its shadow, and everyone is called to navigate uncertain and multidimensional terrains using knowledge, intuition and common sense.

Via lavishly illustrated presentations—along with plenty of opportunity for questions, group discussion and reflection—expect to be taken on an exciting journey through the bewildering visuals of ancient and modern iconography, where established knowledge is in dynamic dialogue with the latest research, and where a queer-feminist lens is both taken as a reference and challenged. Extracurricular practices of interaction with one’s environment and the creation of artworks will also be encouraged.

Chiara Baldini is a raver, researcher, author, 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. In 2015 and 2016 she also set up and curated ConTent, the first cultural area in Fusion Festival, Germany. She has recently co-curated an anthology called “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.

IMAGES: Maenad carrying a thyrsus and a leopard with a snake rolled up over her head. Tondo of an ancient Greek Attic white-ground kylix 490–480 BC; Juventud de Baco (Bacchus Youth), Francisco Soria Aedo, oil on canvas, 1932;