The Center of the World

[Orakulli]

The Center of the World

The Double Eagle - Its Origin as The Symbol of the Illyr-Albanian People?

by James Wm. Pandeli
(Written for the 'Seminar on Illyrians' held at Prishtina, Kosova in the summer of 2004)

If one understands the Illyrian story, a story of the pre-historic era as presented in 'Oh Albania, My Poor Albania' (1980) by this writer, many aspects of the ancient world will be revealed and understood. The simple 'omphalos' stone is just one of many examples of the fragments in our past that is probably connected to this story.

'Omphalos' in Greek means 'navel', 'Kerthize' in Albanian. It was a common type of religious artifact. According to the ancient Greeks, Zeus sent out two eagles to fly across the world and they met at its center, the 'navel' of the world. Many records indicated that the omphalos stone was the holiest object at various oracle centers in all the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea - the most well known being at Delphi... The main characteristic of the omphalos stone of splendor was its ability to allow 'direct communication with the gods'.

Avenues for analysis will often times present themselves when on reviews various possibilities when conceptualizing different ideas about history. The more accurate the ideas, the easier the analysis becomes because not only has a puzzle been revealed but the pieces begin putting themselves into place - it is then that the theories move ever closer to facts and we begin to appreciate the possibilities of ancient truths.

And so it has become a story in itself, the Illyrian story wherein a 'Beginning' was discovered, and an understanding of a 'Birth', a connection to Mother-Earth, was realized. For thousands of years we have had the written stories and now we are made aware of a narration that is slowly emerging about the Illyrians and their world - opening the door to a spiritual awareness and understanding heretofore not available to man - something which might help humankind to better understand his world. The importance of the 'Seminar on Illyrians' held in the Albanian nation of Kosova (Dardhania) cannot be overstated because the Western World will eventually take notice that the story of its spiritual birth had been discovered. For the Albanians, the written stories, especially the religious stories of other cultures has had the effect of diminishing their capacity to appreciate and comprehend the paramount worth of their own religious story and spiritual identity. Perhaps this is true of others.


The Hellenes lighted upon the Balkans thousands of years ago, probably from the Middle East or perhaps North Africa only to be met by an existing Illyrian World, that, in their attempt to comprehend and emulate, gave the impetus to the creation of their own Hellenic society, albeit with all the misinterpretations and misunderstandings and lack of appreciation that any foreigners might experience in a new, already occupied land with already hallowed traditions. But in this new, creative, evolving experience, a truth became overshadowed, then disappeared except for fragments, pieces of a puzzle, an unwritten story that could only come together when a missing link was conceptualized and then established. The civilizations with the writings survived and until now only their stories were told. Is that 'omphalos', the story of the two eagles sent by Z eus one fragment?
(Is 'Parthenon', 'P Ardhen Oun', 'from where I come', another fragment?)

The Kosovar, (the Dardhanian) Julian, Emporer of Rome, nephew of Constantine the Great (of Emathia - Rome's more inclusive geographic/ethnic area for parts of Illyria) knew only parts of a religious tradition, and even then he knew it to be Hellenism. The spiritual sense of coming from a place where the world began, the center of the world at its birth eluded even him. That fragment of two eagles being sent to find the center of the world, the fragment of the Genusus River (Shkumbini), the concepts of Birth, Dawn, 'Afer Dite', of Love and Beauty, of Harmony on and all around the Mother-Earth, of West, 'Perendim', God, 'Perendia', 'Zephyr' (Greek) 'west wind', Ze fare (Albanian), 'voice of the ancestors', 'plehu', 'fertilize', the concept 'Ou Ra' (the name of the first Illyrian god 'Ou', 'falling' to Earth, 'Ra'), the names of the four principal Albanian divisions, Geg, Tosk, Lab, Cham, that evolved in the earliest of traditons and revealed as a result of a new interpretation of 'Genesis of the Gods' by the Greek writer Hesiod (c. 700 B.C.) and exposed in 'Oh Albania...' , these all combining to form a new picture from fragments, a new idea of the ancients and their truths. Even the simple 'navel' on the human body has opened an avenue for thought as it may apply to the earliest culture in the Balkans and the connection to the concept of birth. It is this unwritten knowledge, because of its universality - stories created by man from his perceptions of nature and translated by the earliest Albanian language - that is revealed and should be understood.

What early Illyrian story had it been that inspired the Greeks to reveal the eagles flight? Is the Albanian symbol, the Double Headed Eagle, really two Eagles, silhouetting, one over the other, with the two heads distinct symbolizing the search and symbolizing the spirit of the people of the place where the Eagles met - the center of the world, the land of the Illyr-Albanian people?

Let us be aware that the Illyrian story, the Illyrian traditions should become common knowledge so that Western Man can appreciate the roots of his spiritual beginnings and understand his world and the motivating religious forces that continue to plague his existence as the result of the incomprehensions of the ancient Greek society, the lack of knowledge of the Illyrian world and the subsequent stories from the seeds of Abraham, the Eastern peoples, that took paramount notice as a result. Let us see if this concept of the 'omphalos' ('kerthize') the navel stone, will permit a more universal understanding of the gods rather than a 'communication with the gods', or the one true 'God' that has emerged above others in the written form in our evolution. Will the unwritten story, compatible with nature and reality emerge? Will the ' politics' of the written word - something that has failed to inspire a universal message, a universal understanding, a universal truth that has as its component an understanding of the human capacity - be realized? Many thinkers in the Western World are now writing about possibilities, codes, other stories, ideas of history, new narrations that expose a missing link, but few are brave enough here to go against the 'politics' that brought about the failures...and even fewer want to admit to an Illyrian connection. The time is coming where choice will leave no alternative, no other option, and the two eagles will again seek the center of the world... to find the balance. Illyrianism (i.e. Albanianism) will be understood someday and it will mean a 'beautiful nature, a powerful human spirit for goodness' . After all, it is the spirit that complements the intellect, and after the thousands of lost years, turmoil and survival it is time to learn about the unwritten stories of the pre-historic era of the evolving human being and apply them to our world, to our understanding and to our evolution.