As a people whose occupation for thousands of years
was the cultivation of land and stockbreeding, the Thracians were in constant
touch with nature. They felt their dependence and worshipped it. They respected
the mountains and the caves, some cliffs and locations, the rivers and
the springs, the woods, the plants and the wind. Some of them adopted anthropomorphic
features in their mental pictures. This resulted in the belief in the medical
strength of nature, water and herbs. They were divided into “good” and
“evil” just like people were. They made them part of their rituals at the
coming of spring, symbol of the reproductive and fertilizing natural force
and the coming of autumn, when the abundant crop was harvested. They did
not forget to chase the evil and dark forces by fire, whiffs and noise
– just like all the nature worship cults. That is why the sanctuaries
of the Ancient Thracians were associated with the fundamental life-giving
natural forces, the sun and the water. Their realm was thought to be on
the high mountain summits or around the karst springs. On the contrary,
the darkness and the aridity were associated to death. The beliefs and
the cult of the regenerating nature of the Thracians were identified with
the circle of life.