Macedonia is not an island. It has never been “a forgotten place” or “a place of forgetfulness”; it has never hidden from distance and threats behind opaque walls. It never took root in distrust, nor grew in a place where hatred of the Other might be considered an honorable shelter from the fear of the Other. In its memory, in the sum of its historical consciousness, the ideas of “peripherality” and “inferiority”, the characteristic and constant companions of lands which have been isolated and which have lived in isolation, have never been inscribed nor meaningfully formulated.

Without Macedonia, the world would be a sum of vast solitude. Division is the most eloquent mark of this planet: besides the hundreds of thousands of islands and islets, embroiled In the agonizing struggle against submersion in autism, the continents themselves are, after all, only islands; all around them a solid limitless sea. But man “is not an island, entirely unto himself. Every man is a part of the Continent, a piece of the Land… ” Many have known this, maybe all men, at all times. But for John Donne and for Ernest Hemingway, this knowledge spurred them to oppose the merciless factography of their own lives, but only through poetry, through art. The poet Donne, who felt so deeply the need for the pieces of the human Land to be united in the immense Continent, lived and died on an island – England. The master of the novel, Hemingway, authentically moved by the same noble consciousness that the bells which toll for each human death, toll for each living person, yet had to accept island of Key West, turned in vain towards a kind of unity and bridging the gulf that divides men from men. Neither of them saw the fulfillment of their dream: they never found their Macedonia.

The search for Macedonia!

There it is, squeezed into a single call, the dream of humanity scattered around the archipelago of lonely and divided living. Far from being an overemphasized, local, groundless metaphor, this call, an echo of a geographical specificity, unique in the world, is at the same time a privileged formula of the mental and comparative advantage of the inhabitants of Macedonia in the overall topography of the world’s soul. Macedonia represents a concrete counter – argument to the imperative of selfishness and solitude; as a pure gift to the world, as its bond, it is a direct denial of the thesis of the fatal solitude of men in this world.

The search for Macedonia is, therefore, a search for the gravitational kernel of the torn Land! It is the quest for a point in search of which Archimedes wandered in dream and reality – not needing to move the world (it is moving anyway, as Archimedes certainly knew) – but to move it in a determined direction of unity and understanding. However, even if Archimedes did not succeed in discovering that desired, indispensable, longed for “firm point” (his quest, as is the case with most people who undertake it, brought him nearer to reading his name as “Archi-pain”‘, for without it, “what used to be honey turned into bitterness and anguish”), its location in the part of the world known as “Macedonia” had already been seen as such. Apparently, the region of this fascinating pool recognized as the Mediterranean, is truly placed “in the middle of the Earth”. The children of Europe, Asia and Africa swim in it. Parts of each Continent are found on beaches and rocks, on hills and promontories of all three continents. The hot desert wind “hamsin”, numerous plants, various animals, olive groves, fig trees, sudden downpours, proud pines and the bristle “north wind” cross paths and flow across the Mediterranean Sea, which seems to separate the three largest Continents in the world: Europe, Africa, Asia.

However, the Mediterranean, the real “heart of the world” has its own center – the point where the three enormous loners, the continents, meet and grow familiar with each other; the point where the most ominous curse cast upon mankind to live in fear and solitude – has been denied. Macedonia, the core of the heart of the world, is a real, living amalgam of roads, more solid than the distances and abysses which hinder conversation by placing mute voids between people. Macedonia lS a universal equivalent of hospitality and decent living. It offers enough room not only for all winds, rains, plants, and other forms of life around the Mediterranean, but also for its own winds, rains, waters, herbs and birds, which it wholeheartedly offers to the three largest continents in the world. At the same time it remains pure and individual placing its own indelible and unforgettable mark on everything it touches: an impression which, once received, can make anyone proud and beautified.

The unique position of Macedonia and its unrivaled capacity to be a home of pleasant climes, herbs, animals and people from all three Continents, has brought it the worthiest epithet ever given to any place on Earth:

“CATENA MUNDI”! “THE CLASP OF THE WORLD”!

Is there a more honorable and unblemished attribute than to call a place “The Link of the World”!? What praise can surpass the noble and elevated meaning which emanates so translucently from the nucleus of these words ! ? Even the greatest Kingdoms, the most powerful Empires oppose, confront and face the rest of the world. Their power is drawn from the barriers with which they partition and segment the world.

Is not the power that creates and erects barriers, walls, and obstacles weaker than the power which conquers, neutralizes and annihilates them!? This is precisely the main characteristic of Macedonia and a noble reason for why people have created, cherished and kept the worthiest epithet for their most precious idea and most passionate need – “Catena Mundi”! – “The Link of the World” – the incarnated moment when we are able to face and understand the Other – to comprehend the eternally alien and threatening face of an adversary, a face which, through us, is reflected back to him. The world would not grasp the meaning of the word “meeting” if it were not for Macedonia! Therefore, Macedonia, as “a place where all worlds meet”, and moreover, “a factor which links the worlds”, is the only universal equivalent. It is a link, a tie, a clasp, which, is not merely functional, but also a “Catena Aurea”, the most beautiful clasp cast in gold. Macedonia holds, binds, brings the world together, and is its most beautiful adornment at the same time. It is an alloy of hardest metals, a most delicate clasp of filigree – beyond parallel and comparison.

The way out of the universal solitude is called Macedonia. It focuses and decodes the secret algorithm by which a casual meeting ot telationship, a rare privilege of individuals, becomes a cosmic event. Instead of demanding a place in this or that continent, Macedonia has the sovereign right to expect the continents to see in it their most significant, beautiful and human part: the part of each continent which becomes an integral unit of the other two, none of which is of lesser or greater importance, or, as the poet would say of “… the wind, the sky and the earth”. Located in the very dynamic center of the tectonic clash between the triad – Europe, Asia, Africa – Macedonia had been considered the center of the rotational axis of the whole known world as early as 2500 years ago. The other two continents – the two large islands of America and Australia – remain as two detached and isolated stabilizers of the central bulk of the land united in the region of Macedonia.

The legends connected with the origin of Macedonia and its name bear in themselves a prophetically dense message which, in the light of the general fact revealing it as “The Clash of the World Cast in Gold”, gain a startling and consistent validity. If our thesis proves acceptable, all three continents, which in the time when the name originated had been considered as elements of the whole world, should be proud of their origin. Could one find a better confirmation of such a thesis than the fact that the name of Macedonia, through the name of Macedon has been registered in the mythology of all three continents? Or, in other words, what is there in the myths by means of which Europe, Africa and Asia seek for an answer to resolve their isolation through a unique point of authentic proximity, and which is linked to the name of Macedon and the area known as Macedonia?

In all three myths, apart from the divine, i.e. royal descent of Macedon, his righteousness, temperance and wisdom have been praised, which, on a higher level of interpretation, suggests the outstanding quality of the person who linked and united the three opposed worlds: the worlds of the white, yellow and black people. Thus, European mythology considers Macedon the son of Zeus and Thea, who, as a result of his distinguished spiritual values and his enormous physical power, was appointed by his father Zeus to rule the most neuralgic and significant region of the world – the axis where the three continents meet. It is quite indicative that Macedon’s brother was known by the name of Magnet. Apparently the great adhesive power indispensable for the titanic task of keeping the three parts of the world together, is closely related to Macedon himself, who greatly needed the magnetic power for such responsibility.

Asia too, has its own hero being given the same task and, strangely enough, his name is also Macedon.

This time Macedon appears to be a son of a king. His father is Licaeon, a righteous and wise king, God’s favorite. He ruled over Arcadia, the most ideal and idyllic kingdom of all times. These two details show the necessary characteristics of the one who is to unite the world: wise and temperate, with a soul molded in the tranquil and mild harmony of Arcadia. In this myth too, Macedon received his kingdom in the region of Macedonia, later named after him.

The third, African myth, has its origin in Egypt. Macedon is again of divine origin, a son of , who was given Thrace and Macedonia as his demesne where he ruled by law and virtue.

This exceptional coincidence of the three mythological explanations on the origin of the name of the region called Macedonia, logically interprets the intelligent syntagma adherent only to Macedonia: “Catena Mundi”, “The Clasp of the Worlds”. This syntagma, having justified its existence, has been accepted by all three interrelated parts, united and merged by means of its adhesive power.

This distinct cohesive evaluation (positively noted as value, as constructive effect) of the role attributed to the small territorial unit designated as Macedonia (the housing of the wheel is also small, yet it is its most important part; why should the wheel of the world be designed in any other way?), fits into the only possible contradiction. In other words, at first glance, the military expedition of Alexander of Macedon jeopardizes our thesis. The conquest of the world is not an act which can easily be understood as a constructive and cohesive achievement.

However, this most glorious achievement of all times is altogether different from the other imperialist campaigns in history. Firstly, according to available sources, Alexander of Macedon wished to accomplish the conquest in accordance with all principles of ethics and of the military codex. Secondly, it was of utmost significance to him that he regard his great campaign not as a mere subjugation and enslavement of the conquered territories. To him, the role of Macedonia did not undergo radical alterations: the “Clasp of the World”, the link called Macedonia, had the opportunity to become an active principle of world unification with its concentrated power and enthusiasm, wisdom and bravery, righteousness and culture. This was the sole reason for insisting on an introduction of such authority in the conquered states and satraps, based upon the laws of reason and the codes of ethics. All injustice and anarchy he punished mercilessly. Therefore, he gave commands to his generals and soldiers not to insult or humiliate the young women and daughters of Persia, but to treat them as their lawful wives. Consequently, he ordered “the marriage of the worlds” at the great wedding, an event which, according to the sources, united over 20,000 couples in matrimony. Thus, the idea of Alexander, as quoted by the Turkish admiral Reis Piri, was identical with his motto: “One characteristic of” Iskender” never to judge people by “whether they were dressed in silk or in rags, whether they were rich or poor”, but “whether they were capable of living together with other people by divine and human laws.

Look at it. Look at it carefully! Use all our knowledge, patience, all your attention, concentrate on it, on that cosmic structure designed before our Time, before the Genesis of the world. Let this inexplicably friendly shape of an incomparable architectural ornament, which certainly engendered the time of Creation, touch habitats of our “palimpsest”, of the soul of which Plato spoke. Is it peculiar that “the broad-backed philosopher” knew so much about “the soul which remembers”? Especially if we recall that he was born and lived very close to the center of the center of the worlds – Macedonia. Is this shape of gold, this “pure form”, albeit incarnated, embodied shape of the algorithm upon which the world rests?

The absolute darkness of the redundant Void before the creation of the Cosmos is impregnated with this shape, not with the achievement, not with the result, but with the concept. This is “in concreto” the active code of creation, which, at the same time is the codex and the canon, an instruction and a counsel for the development and survival of the universe. Everything can be created from It, but only It is the axiom, which has nothing but Itself for Its creation. If our body, any body, is the realization of the idea incorporated in the soul of the universe, this miraculous structure is a realization and somatization of the soul itself. Listen to what It tells the world. What did the wise have in mind when they emphasized the trinity of creation? Nothing but the fact that what IS consists of an inner duality, of the universal integral – binomial; and that the world is partitioned because in the process of unification it obtains its utmost competence: creation of the new, perpetuation of the glorious Original Revolt against the black Void. Empedocles, one more of the lucky ones to be born near the “Clasp of the Worlds”, understood that the origin of the of what originally was One. The search for the self, the mastery over the desire for the Other, are the only ways in which the Universe can direct its creative capacities to produce new values and beauty. What is love, asks Empedocles, if not the power which leads us to the Other, and by which the Other understands us as a condition for His own existence.

The story about the sandal of this magnificent wise man illustrates his previous statement: when he jumped in the mouth of Aetna, his sandal surfaced on the flowing lava exactly at the place where he told his friends to wait for it.

Hegel, who had not the privilege to be born near the place where the prophesied meeting of the worlds took place (he was born far away from Macedonia), was certain that the wisdom of this region was the most profound revelation of the mortals. He believed that the solution to the universal enigma was buried there, in Macedonia. His dialectics is nothing else but an exhaustive philosophic analysis, a learned commentary on what stretches before our eyes, known as:

THE BUCKLE OF MACEDONIA!

Three elements are in play. Each sufficient to ensure its own existence. Disconnected, they are unable to create anything. The secret of the buckle lies in the secret of connecting. Each element is framed within a delicately forged chain: two symbolize separation, and the third connecting one completes the entity. As such the central element suggests the unity of the disconnected ones, whereas they, subtly but convincingly, stress their symbolic function of wings. Amid the dynamic cen- tre of gravity, in the very focus where the forces and the essence of all three parts intersect – the circle is the perfect harmonious partitur of the universe. Don’t the protruding embers of the Sun-fire shine from within? And doesn’t the same finding again come with three new circles? And all are joined in their common centre!

As for the central part of the Macedonian buckle – the conceptual cradle of the genesis – isn’t it again exactly the “same formula, only intensified and amplified? The main body now is the buckle itself. Its wings, now quite widely spread, as they should be for their long- lasting flight to eternity, are the two entities, left and right, in which the same code may be recognized and deciphered. Surely, that same fundamental surface is now massive, because it is supposed to support and hold, and even subsume, the two lat- eral entities which it unites. For the same reason, the central circle is also larger: Also, the Sun, engraved in the circle, is more glaring and warmer – since accumulates the glow and the heat of both entities it is connected with. As for the chain, thrown as a rectorical, royal sign, it is not a meaningless ornament, but a genuine insignia of the vital pillar of the world. It has been triple woven; it complements the chain tied to the centre – to the “Catena Mundi”- the ending and meeting point of all lines. The central chain has also been decorated about with a delicate pearly treble clasp, while three perfect circles are again attached to the ends of the three central chains.

Once one understands the concept of the “Macedonian buckle” one will understand the anatomy of our Planet. The Earth has created Islands just because Macedonia is not one. Just because Macedonia shows how Islands turn into Continents!

Ferid Muhic