Galery

1

Anastasia Balezdrova

Upon entering the small shop with the mysterious name "The Witches of Smyrna”, the visitor is lost in a different atmosphere. The decoration and the furniture are reminiscent of the luxuriously decorated halls of the 19th century and the mystery that fills the small colourful bottles and covers of books entitled "The Witches of Smyrna", "Book of Spells", "Katina’s Pack" is hard to describe.

We talked with Mara Meimaridi in the room behind the reception hall, where she receives her visitors whom she consults about issues of the ''heart''. She is an anthropologist, a teacher at the Medical University of Athens. She graduated in philosophy at Athens University, in archaeology at the Sorbonne and studied biology and medical anthropology in parallel as wells as participating in studies on child health for years. In recent years, she has been writing articles for major Greek newspapers, mainly on topics related to nutrition and continues with her studies, which this time include astrophysics and cosmology at the American University of UMD.

"The Witches of Smyrna" is her first novel, which has had remarkable success in Greece, Turkey, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. The story of the female character Katina was filmed in Greece.

Writer Mara Miymaridi is a grand niece of the witch Katina. She firmly believes and states in her book that her aunt Katina was reborn in her. That is why she explains in the novel her strong will and aspiration for the knowledge of magic, including her incredible success - personal and professional.
Smyrna, 1887. Katina was a smart and determined woman from Smyrna. In the poor neighbourhoods where she had been living, she met a Turkish woman Atar, who consecrated her into magic. Nothing could stop the witch and Katina aimed to climb up the ladder of Smyrna’s society. Lovr filters, charms, spells - magic proved infallible... She managed to marry four times – each of the men being more handsome and richer than the previous one. Climbing the social ladder, Katina was involved in their businesses - tobacco, olive oil, banks, ships, and trade. And one day, she became the mistress of Smyrna, a personal friend of the Sultan at the time and his first wife, who was also dedicated to magic.

Her notes, spells and magic were found in a dusty chest in her villa on the island of Aegina one hundred years after her death. And the story begins from there.

Magic

When people hear the word "magic", they react in different ways. Some fear it, others ignore it, a third group says "what nonsense this is" and there are those who are inspired with respect. Actually, magic is wisdom. In Old Persian, "mag" means a wise man. Magus and magnus mean great, wise. Every nation, village, community or group of people has always had its magician. He or she was the most experienced person, familiar with all the traits of human character and the feelings. People considered that person wise and trusted his or her opinion.

Gradually, this "mag" had become the physician of the village. He knew all the herbs because as humans we are subject to substances. Today, all medicines are based on herbs and the magician had the knowledge of them.

On the other hand, he knew not only the character of the people, but of each man individually. In the villages, people know each other.  They know how they will react in a specific situation, what scares them. For example, in the village where my aunt is living, the oldest resident knows which candidate each of the residents will support during elections. And because these people know the others, they know their repetitions. I mean that people continually repeat the scenario of their lives. A bad man always does bad things, etc. When you do the same thing, the result of your actions will always be the same.

So, people visited the magician for different reasons: to gain strength, blessing, joy. Magic was the first religion long before the appearance of the other ones. Magicians were something like today's psychoanalysts. Magic, spells, cards, etc., on the one hand, are tools of self-concentration for the magician himself because the magician uses only one thing: his mind. On the other hand, they are a means of channelling the energy to the body. The man who goes to a magician always bears a pain, fear, problem.

Mara Meimaridi's reception hall

In the old days, the magician did exactly the work of psychoanalysts today. Even telling someone's fortune by cards is a very serious thing, because it is actually a binary session: the person shares his/her concerns and the magician who reads the cards has a talk with him/her. I.e. we are talking about a real psychoanalysis here. Then, all the women of the village gathered together at the home of the oldest one every Friday, who was called "manda," to read the cards. It was a group therapy in fact. Each of the women spoke of her problem and half of it disappeared only by mentioning it.

The magician is obliged to give joy and relieve the person in one way or another. Even by saying, "Look, this relationship is over", he or she still helps him or her. The person will be hurt, he or she will cry, suffer but at some point the person will get over it and will continue his or her normal course of life. The same is true when the magician tells the person that the relationship with the beloved one will recover in the future. The magician is obliged to "programme" you to expect better things in the future. This is the practical side of magic.

The "I want - I can - I must" principles

In order for a spell to be successful, these three laws must be present. For example, I want to marry someone - it's entirely possible and I must marry to have a family and children. What I mean is that we should abandon utopias and live a better life.

But the most important part of the magic is more mysterious. Everything around us - people and objects, they do not really exist. Everything and everyone are forms of energy. The objects are the product of our mind. We can touch and feel them because the only tool that we have to touch this energy is our five senses. If we had more, we could probably do other things like passing through walls or something. Everything that exists around us, planets, space, it has been all created by our mind. But nothing of this exists in fact. Everything is energy.

According to quantum mechanics, small concentrations create us - our bodies. Smaller ones create something small, larger ones - something bigger. Every form of energy has its mission. The first thing it must do is try to survive. The embryo that is created from the union of sperm and ovum wants to live. So, people develop medicine to live longer. The second thing is to reproduce, to create an offspring to exist. The third is to make its offspring better than it is. Therefore, when concentrated energy creates a body it is trying to preserve it. So, when the body dies, because there is a limit to life the span of which is inreasing over the years since the form itself is trying to survive, the energy does not scatter but it seeks to preserve itself. Time does not exist anywhere anyway. So, it is very likely that ghosts actually exist.

One thing is certain: the form, as an observer, can affect the matter. And because the matter is a single frequency, the form can interfere with its own positive or negative frequency. For example, if you think about something in a negative way, we give the energy a sign for it not to happen. I.e. we influence the matter. If you think positive, it will happen at all costs. There is only one way to reduce the probability of that desire not happening: the spell, the magical intervention. It is because it helps our foolish mind to think positively. So, any spell that is done to make money, be successful in work and the like is a way to make your mind send a powerful energy wave.

A large group of people who have the same goal can influence a larger area. For example, the weather is always rainy on Good Friday. This happens because the souls of the people here are still unconsciously being grieved somehow, because of the sufferings of Christ, and they emit this grief without realizing it. Years ago, the crime rate in New York was very high – it was over 20%. Then, they conducted an experiment: They gathered around 2-3,000 people in Central Park who expressed in their thoughts their desire for the crime rate to drop. During this particular week, the crime rate dcreased by 11%. In their statements, the police chief said that this had only happened before when there was a metre of snow and the criminals could not operate due to "technical" difficulties. Therefore,

Everything is in our mind

Magic is a way to turn the negative into positive, to reduce fear and increase desire. That's the whole secret.
 
Even I, who know the mechanism after dealing with these issues for so many years, make my spells. It is just because my subconscious does not understand explanations. It is susceptible only to smells of magical filters, ceremonies such as spells and pictures like these from Deste cards and dreams. I can talk to it only through them. And when I find the right balance, I can achieve whatever I want as long as I apply the three principles "I want –I can – I must".

Katina from "The Witches of Smyrna" applied the things I have just explained in practice. The result was the same. Katina, however, was not able to know about quantum mechanics. However, she was doing what she should. She was a very balanced person and knew that if you fail to "harness" and direct your positive thoughts and energy you will not be able to achieve the desired result. The equilibrium of the spirit I'm talking about is something very rare. Consider that today everyone is full of stress and anxiety. It was quite the opposite in the case of Katina.

Bad spells

People’s fears give rise to bad spells. We have five feelings: joy, anger, sadness, shame and fear, the last of which is the strongest of all, because all of our trends are related to phobias. The logical question that arises from everything described previously is why has our mind created diseases, misfortunes, and everything negative in our lives while we want to reach the positive? Unfortunately, the human brain is bipolar: it feels joy at one time and fears at another time. The spell contains a wish. For example, if we both love the same man, if I win him, it will be bad for you and if you are the one who wins, it will be negative for me. I.e. good and bad are the same thing; they are the two sides of the same coin. It's all about how you look at things, but people carry with them both good and bad. There are not only good or only bad people. God himself does not only patronize but also punishes us.

Magicians, despite their methods, are "programmers" of energy. If you go to a magician and he tells you that you will die on 6 April, it will happen for sure. The reason is that all the energy form is "organized" around this fear and as a result, that which is “programmed”, will happen.

I started it in my childhood. Actually, I do not remember my mother and my aunts having done anything else. Of course, practice is needed as well. I remember well how my aunt used to hold the cards in her hands, asking me what colour, what letter I saw. We all have intuition, but we must develop it.

There are many people who claim to know, see and the like. This is not true but nevertheless, they do wrong. So, in my books, I recommend people to trust only their hands. I have described the materials, the words that are pronounced and the rituals. Nobody knows anything more. Those concerned must do these things themselves. If a woman wants a man, she is the one who has the strong wave of energy that is unfortunately filled with fear too. If she removes the fear with a spell, then there is no way for her not to win this man.

Love is a devastating frequency for the energy

We all strive for it, because it is a state of pleasure, in which the heart throbs, a feeling of bliss fills us, which is "blind" to everything else. We are not interested in anything but the object of our interest. This is because each energy form wants to be close to the other one. The goal is the same: to have an offspring. This is the second major goal of energy forms after existence – reproduction. So, love is nothing more than one frequency, which brings together two forms in order for a new form to be born.

Affection is a positive wave

And we all strive for it, because as observers, we influence the matter.

The interest of people is very high

People who come to me trust me. And the moment they express this confidence, the wave will pass. Making a spell has a better effect than doing psychoanalysis for six years.

People are afraid of magic, because they do not know it and because they themselves choose to be exposed to its influence. For example, if you find at your doorway a bar of soap riddled with pins and wrapped in hairs, you will think that a spell has been cast on you. The general conscience says it's magic. The person is immediately scared and thinks that someone wants bad things to happen to him or her. Because the mind and the subconscious are not connected except during dreams, our mind says, "What nonsense is this" and throws out the soap, but the subconscious does not forget it and fears. Thus, the inner concern begins that you have enemies who want you to suffer. And since you have heard that soap means to become ill and to "melt," you will not escape the disease.

You can be your own magician

At the end of our conversation, Mara Meimaridi wrote for the readers of GRReporter:

"Believe in yourself and always smile, even when it is hard.

Make plans and dreams for the future. Always think positive.

Banish all fear and then you will be the best MAGICIANS".