The Mysticism of the Ancient Thracians – Internal and External Publics in the 1970s

Abstract

The presentation tackles the ancient Thracian religion as it was conceptualized by the well-known Bulgarian historian and public intellectual Professor Alexander Fol (1933 – 2006) and his followers in the 1970s. In particular, it traces parallels between the biographical trajectory of Professor Fol and his views on Thracian society and religion, on the one hand, and the policies he pursued as Minister of Education, on the other hand. In Fol’s texts, three versions of his perception of Thracian culture can be identified. The first one focuses on the latter’s occult element, the aspirations to personal immortality, and its compatibility with the humanist visions of Fol’s contemporary New Age religious movements. This understanding of Thracian society and religion has been instrumental for the success of the most remarkable exported cultural product of Bulgaria in the 20th century – the Thracian Exhibition. The second version is of the kind of a retro-dystopia. According to it, ancient Thrace was a society totally controlled by a ruler who was God and who had absolute economic, military, social, and ideological power over his subjects. In the third version, the orphic appears to be a lonely individual who has cut all ties with the others.