September 17, 2025 5:00 PM UTC
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.
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Sylvia V. Linsteadt is a novelist, poet, scholar of ancient history, animal tracker, and artist.
Learn moreExploring the pre-patriarchal culture of Minoan Crete
In this webinar, we will explore the topic of the upcoming course by Chiara Baldini on the Minoan culture of Crete. Who were the Minoans? Why can we define them as a pre-patriarchal culture? And why are they so important for us today?
After more than a century since the first excavations at Knossos, the Minoans continue to astonish with the mesmerizing beauty of their artistic production and the uniqueness of their religious and political systems, features that set them apart from other Mediterranean Bronze Age civilizations. In an increasingly patriarchal and warmongering world, where kings, warriors, and relationships of domination prevailed, the Minoans were able to carve a different path, with significantly less investment in weapons and armies and an impressive artistic production of pottery, frescoes, textiles, and jewelry. Their art reveals a unique spirit of creativity and skilfulness, a talent for grasping the sensual beauty of nature, a vibrant and ecstatic spirituality, and political structures that supported and encouraged such cultural richness.
Chiara Baldini, a scholar and cultural historian deeply versed in the study of Minoan society and spirituality, brings her expertise in tracing the threads between ancient myth, archaeological evidence, and contemporary relevance. She is joined by Sylvia Linsteadt, a writer and storyteller whose work braids myth, ecology, and feminist perspectives, making her uniquely attuned to drawing living meaning from ancient worlds. Together, their perspectives blend rigorous research with a sensitivity to story and symbolism, offering a conversation that is as intellectually grounded as it is imaginatively alive.
Feminist scholars of the 1980s and ’90s, following archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, emphasized the non-patriarchal aspects of Minoan culture; insights that were later contested by mainstream archaeology. Now, with new discoveries, theories, and a growing interest in animistic religions and political anthropology, we revisit these ideas to discern what still holds true and what needs reimagining.
Join us for a conversation that will inspire minds to think beyond the patriarchal frame and hearts to feel that another world is possible.
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.
Learn moreChiara 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]]([email protected]) or Instagram here [@iamalwayschiara](https://www.instagram.com/iamalwayschiara/)
Sylvia V. Linsteadt is a novelist, poet, scholar of ancient history, animal tracker, and artist.
Learn moreSylvia V. Linsteadt is a novelist, mythologist, scholar of ancient history, and a certified animal tracker. Her work over the last 12 years—both fiction and non-fiction—is rooted in myth, ecology, feminism and bioregionalism, and is devoted to broadening our human stories to include the voices of the living land. She is the author of the collections The Venus Year, and Our Lady of the Dark Country, two novels for young readers, The Wild Folk and The Wild Folk Rising (Usborne, 2018 and 2019), and the post-apocalyptic folktale cycle Tatterdemalion (Unbound 2017) with painter Rima Staines. Her works of nonfiction include the award-winning Lost Worlds of the San Francisco Bay Area (Heyday, Spring 2017).