Turns out that for many people the Seven Lakes (Sedem Ezero in Bulgarian) region is one of the holiest nature places in Bulgaria. For the followers of one Bulgarian genius guru from the early 20th century named Peter Deunov or Beinsa Duno this is THE holiest place in Bulgaria and the site of an annual meeting in August which draws thousands of white-clad pilgrims to this spot to perform the cosmic circle dance know as Panurythmia.

This dance and its music as designed by Peter Deunov are based upon Pi (3.14) and serve to celebrate and renew an energetic connection with the movements of the cosmos, the heavenly bodies and the inner universe of each person. When they danced this with me and in later instances when I have had the pleasure of doing traditional circle dances with a mixed group I feel the ancientness and wonder of this act – circle dancing is very powerful and has within it the creative force of the mixing of the sexes, the ancient human family’s breath as people lose themselves and move as one, becoming light and warm in a way that feels intimately bonded with the natural world and its forces.

I was very lucky because both of these girls besides being friendly had a deep interest and respect for the traditions of Bulgarian culture, especially old songs and circle dances. They performed several of these for me as a duet with flutes and singing, their notes and voices weaving one inside the other producing other vibrations and harmonies carrying the mystery of this land and its people, reverberating against these mountains and rippling the blue waters of the lakes.

My perspective in meeting them had a unique angle since I had just arrived here after three months in Iran learning about the Persian language and culture with my heart. There were many words in their songs which had a clearly Persian origin (or vice-versa who knows?) and they had a very vivid feeling for the cultural migration which had taken Bulgarians centuries ago from central Asia and the Ural mountain area to the west and what is today Bulgaria. From what they told me it turns out that for centuries the Bulgarian people had stopped in Iran along the way in the Caspian sea area before moving on to the Bulgaria of today.

As I learned more about these two girls with the help of their friend who arrived later and spoke good English from her current career spending most of the year on Tulip farms in the Netherlands I guessed that they were something like Bulgarian new-agers or maybe hippies of a sort. The told me all kinds of things about Peter Deunov including the fact that the famous mind of the 20th century, Albert Einstein, had been his disciple. They also told me other things that both I and the Tulip farm girl snickered at like “that the Pre-Cyrillic language of Bulgaria was the original language of Babylon where all spoke one tounge and that the ultimate source of this language was space peoples."

More information about Peter Deunov is available on the internet in many places including:

About Peter Deunov & Panurythmia

Elements I saw in the overview I got of Peter Deunov's teaching:

- The Turkish sema (whirling dervish ceremony). He created whirling excercises that have one arm up to heaven and another pointing down to the ground which as in the sema have the person serving to transmit energy downward from heaven to earth.
- Buddhist mindfulness.
- In Panurythmia the cosmic circle dance I saw performed by the Kailash in Pakistan's mountains.
- Hesychia (Christian personal evolution system from the Orthodox tradition) and transcendant love.
- Returning to the devine from a state of error.
- Unity with the devine through dance (music and motion).
If I knew more about them I suspect I would also see traces of manicheism, bogomilism and gnosticism in Deunov's teachings.
The key to appreciating Deunov is to remember that he lived from the 1880s to the 1940s and for him the mountains were essential to spirituality.


NOTA BENE: Here are corrections of some of the above descriptions in an original note I received from one of the two girls at seven lakes, "Milena Jelyazkova" who said:

"Hallo , Jason ! I looked at your site and your impresions from Bulgaria.There you exhibit what we tellig you.But I see you admited some mistakes fruit of misunderstanding. For example, that the Paneurhithmy is based upon Pi(3,14). We didn't tell you this.When wewas in the "7 lakes" hut I show you a bulgarian national danse - "Paidushko horo" for what my father told me it's steps are in lane with Pi(3,14). May be you mixed the informaton for this with the Paneurhithmy.There are some others thikgs, who we don't suceeded to explain you right , because of the langwage barrier.You know , we conversed with a help from the gestures.We was understanding for the inside connection among us.When I talk with others foreigners , they can't understand me. The Paneurhithmy is not exacly dance or gimnastics.This is a harmony and unanimity among music, movement and idea. By means of the Paneurhithmy the people harmonize theirs thoughts, feelings and will , and go in right relation with the ! Nature. If you want to understand more about the Paneurhithmy and the Master Beinsa Douno search www.beinsadouno.com . At the photo 26 you mistake the nime of Beinsa Douno. I think is good the mistakes be correkting, otherwise , the information is not reasonable. I don't know whether my letter is write good. I used a dictionary. Be alive and healthy! (a bulgarian trditional phrase).

Milena from 7- lakes , Bulgaria"

Milena's Suggested Link