Dr. Georgi Mishev

Georgi Mishev, PhD, born in 1982, is a Bulgarian author and researcher of ancient cultures and religion of the Mediterranean region. Furthermore, his field of research extends to magical practices, rituals and reminiscences in the folklore of the Balkan peoples.

He obtained his PhD in the field of cultural-historical heritage on the topic of 'the traditional Bulgarian culture as a source of information of magica in ancient Southeastern Europe'. Georgi Mishev's scientific expertise is currently enriched by his personal observations and active exchanges with magic practitioners in Bulgaria. Due to his education - Russian and German philology - he is familiar with the writing of magical rituals of a number of Slavic and Germanic peoples. He is the member of a family of folk healers and also initiated in the practice of traditional folk magic. As a priest and founder of Threskeia, a pagan tradition based on the beliefs of ancient Thrace, he also sees himself as a transmitter and preserver of ancient healing practices and rituals.

Interview quotes: "The attitude of the dominant religions to magic today, that is, of Christianity and Islam, is usually quite negative. But if we take a closer look at Bulgarian folk culture, magic is actually a part of everyday life. In many villages there were almost no doctors in the past, and of course the folk healers provided medical care and used magic for these healings. Of course, herbs and various other techniques were also used."

"Magic is an important part of my belief system, because magic for me is something that is a part of the human being."

"Because according to this archaic belief, everything that was once in contact with each other also carries a part of the energy from the other object. If this energy is activated with the appropriate spell, or meeting formula, then you also achieve the goal. And with the damage spell, the target is the real problem."

"Because magic has always been on the fringe, so to speak. Magic was and still is something that is not part of the official faith. Of course, yes, you can find many similarities between so-called magical practices and ordinary religious practices. If you look at a mass in church, for example, it has a lot of magical elements in it, and this division between religion and magic is rather artificial."