In an old Mediterranean town, I noticed a terracotta amphora being sold alongside various other items…
I approached it with curiosity as it was a Roman wine amphora from the 1st century… Taking it in my hands, I saw that it was recently made and that many similar vessels were being offered to passersby a few meters away.
At first, I was disappointed and thought: This amphora deceived me. But then I started thinking.
The amphora didn’t deceive me; even though its material foundation was new, its shape was authentic and that made it similar to the original Roman amphora. My previous perception was formed by old amphoras, full of salt and patina, and seeing one in its original state, I didn’t recognize it and called it “fake.” Moreover, this amphora wasn’t crudely made to deceive tourists, but simply to transport wine.
I believe that forms are resilient and lasting, that they restore and renew their material foundation without losing anything in the process. themselves. Contrary to what the uninformed think about philosophy, form is not material but has a mental and immeasurable origin. We see and touch it without looking or touching. What we actually see and touch is matter directed and shaped towards a spiritual form. It is like what we used to see in experiments in our youth when we would place a magnet under paper and sprinkle it with iron dust, and marvel at the miraculous alignment of the particles that would form a spindle on both poles of the invisible magnet. If we were to remove these particles and replace them with others, the same spindle would form again, meaning we would see that the magnetic spindle remained, that the form remained regardless of the change in iron dust. Metal is the only thing that allows us to see and touch the invisible and intangible spindle devoid of matter, but which always appears and always in the same form.
In this way, countless forms that Nature or, ultimately, man has achieved, which God conceived, remain. Visible or invisible, depending on whether they possess or do not possess matter that embodies them. It is not matter that endures, unless we perceive it through its unembodied expressions. Form is what patiently waits at every intersection of time’s paths.
At these intersections, forms become visible, and then they are carried away by the wind of time. However, the cyclicity of this curved universe brings them back again, and they embody themselves once more for a moment. In that moment, they are perfect, young, unique. Yet, form lasts longer than what is formed; time does not harm it. It is not true that form evolves, there are simply “families of forms” that, like larger or smaller networks, take on this or that shape. Due to the time gap between their appearances, we sometimes say: This is a new form. If the one writing this did not know the Roman amphorae from the 1st century, they would never have discovered the old invisible pattern that gave it shape beneath the new clay.
This is a universal law, the law of Nature. Neither the spirit due to its perfection nor the form that constitutes its image evolve. What evolves is what is in between, the passionate and vital psychic world that creates its own experiences by introducing its protoplasm between the two poles of complementary perfection: spirit and form.
That is why the ideals of perfection, such as Harmony and Beauty, are timeless, incorruptible, and immortal. We seek the spirit and form of great perfection; we reject what is ignoble, transient, disharmonious, perishable, no matter where it comes from. Or rather, we accept it, but under the condition that we subordinate it to the immutable laws of Beauty and Immortality.
A philosopher must possess firmness, perseverance, patience, kindness, nobility of heart, and purity of body. The clay is new, but the spirit and form are ancient, unimaginably ancient. The wind of history that brought us to the stage of the world, once again clothes us in new attire in the cyclic return.
Founder and first president of the Me… Don’t worry, I will do my best to translate the Croatian text into English while preserving its original meaning and ensuring it doesn’t look like a translated text.
Original Croatian text: Ne brini, dat ću sve od sebe da prevedem ovaj hrvatski tekst na engleski zadržavajući njegovo izvorno značenje i pažljivo birajući riječi kako bi tekst izgledao originalno.