From former Burgmann Master Trevor Wigney - Omphalos, 1979
In the halcyon days of Burgmann College, way back in 1971, when ideas and enthusiasms for a new college were many and varied, a group of people conceived the idea of a college magazine or yearbook. The proposal was endorsed by the BRA (no doubt after much debate and many points of order) and eventually by the College Council. The Council minutes even record that a name was chosen: Omphalos. The magazine never appeared .... I am proud that 1979 has seen a revival of interest in this project.
The originally-proposed name, Omphalos, was, I believe, a good one. It is one of those Greek words which is capable of a great many subtle interpretations in English. Literally it means ‘navel’ or even ‘umbilical cord’. But it has other connotations; Aristotle used it in the sense of the touchstone of an arch; the temple at Delphi, and many other Greek temples, have an omphalos stone at the very centre of their structures.
The word was used, more naturalistically, to indicate the centre of a flower or a fruit .... On one very mundane level then, omphalos is simply ‘navel-gazing’. We know that too much of it is unhealthy, but we all do it. It is slightly indulgent. This magazine looks inward, then, at life in a fairly closed community and records that life.
[Letter continues below.]
Omphalos covers through the years
In years to come, we will take it out from time to time and indulge in nostalgic trips ...The second meaning of omphalos, from its meaning of umbilical cord, indicates that the magazine celebrates new life. If a college and a civilisation grow tired of the celebration of life, then they are in profound trouble ...
The third meaning of omphalos has to do with the simple contemplation of the beauty, the order, of apparently simple phenomena like flowers and fruit ... Perhaps the most serious meaning of omphalos is to be found in the symbolic omphalos stones in the Greek temples (or in Aristotle’s keystone), It is an assertion that there is a central and integrating factor in life.
For Christians, who have often taken over symbols from a pagan culture, omphalos speaks of redemption, because they believe that Jesus Christ is Lord of all life ...
Long live the spirit of Omphalos in this College.
Master Trevor Wigney
Omphalos, 1979
