All narrative is a lie. The truth can only be heard in the pauses between words. In stillness. When we recognise our own breath.
TO ANIMA MUNDI
Author: Milana Vujkov
Writer, artist, psychologist. Film historian. Independent scholar, researching psychology of film and spectatorship, psychology of art and creativity, alchemical storytelling and art. BA Psychology-MA Film History. Presently, running two blogs: Poets, Mavericks & Prophets and Lola On Film, hosting Lola & The Poets podcast, and launching storytelling shop & workshops, In the longer process of writing a novel and shooting a doc on female ancestry. More info in Full Bio.
Based in Serbia and the UK. To get in touch, please drop me a line at milana@poets-mavericks-and-prophets.com
Welcome to Poets, Mavericks & Prophets, a manufacturer of philosophical mischief, psychological acrobatics, alchemical art projects & esoteric master plans. PMaPs regular offerings are soulful nuggets, ephemeral impressions picked up in moments when the self & the Anima mundi aligned – gathered as micro blog posts, scribbled & shared throughout the years as I went about the business of being a human. A psychological diary and a spirit to-do list, in one. If you fancy surfing poetry, digging into phantasmagorical stories, exploring alchemical psychology, choosing your film food wisely, enchanting your time with magical imagery, buying a piece of storytelling jewellery at the story shop, or jingling a podcast on the mystical & the mundane while you’re on the road, it’s all here, in the Menu, uploaded or streamed somewhere – give it a look and a whirl. For anyone searching for a creative boost, online, or in situ, PMaPs is launching storytelling workshops, coming soon to a reality near you.
With hope that you find what you are looking for, on this site – and in life. Sweet travels.
Latest Posts
“My work is a game, a very serious game.”
M. C. Escher
Writing
Demolition Road is a series of phantasmagorical short stories I’ve started writing seven years ago, and revisiting with great gaps in between. They would be best described as transrealism. Each one follows one of eleven characters, all dwelling on the margins of society, yet fighting valiantly to imbue their lives with meaning, and their time on Earth with joy, while submerged in intense fantastical inner worlds, potent with chaos, synchronicity & creativity. Five are written, six more are on their way.
- Electric Locusts (2014) – Woman on the verge of a fridge.
- Fred Is Dead (2014) – Man wishes to be worm.
- The Fish Lady (2015) – Woman selling fish encounters salvation.
- Cruel Cuts (2019) – Woman shapes futures with haircuts.
- God’s Analyst (2020) – The man who solved the world.
If you are a curious lyrical soul, you will find a selection of my poems in tabs on the Poetry page, where you can also read my art manifesto, written in 2008. I’ve been thinking in verse and poetic imagery since I could write, and writing poetry since then. I would say that poetic expression is my most authentic way of creating as an artist, and poetry a sacred space where I feel most protected, and at home, in words and visuals.
Lola & The Poets Podcast
Lola & The Poets podcast is a virtual alchemical workshop exploring personal and collective magical journeys, the ways the mystical & the mundane are intertwined. Psychology, culture, art, alchemy. Solo shows & interviews. Out every odd Thursday. Hosted by Milana Vujkov.
On Plant Wisdom – With Don Roberto – Lola & The Poets
Story Shop
Poets, Mavericks & Prophets presents its Story Shop, envisioned as the blog’s crystal vaults, a little alchemical shop of stories told in a variety of materials and manifestations, made in alignment with the celestial weather.
Delighted to announce that The Philosophy Of Light – my first collection of crystal bracelets, is ready for pre-order and will soon be available for purchase. The collection is an exploration of the character of our crystal kin and their relationship with the nature of light, the message its stellar code embeds in the crystal’s sphere.
All artwork will be aligned with a Chaldean astrological planetary day and hour, with intention to balance the root storylines of the stones by acknowledging their myths, and clear personal space for the wearer.
Storytelling Workshops
Poets, Mavericks & Prophets will be launching alchemical storytelling workshops beginning in Autumn 2021, designed as temenos, joyful sacred spaces for psychological work and creative inspiration, drawing on alchemical symbolism, fusing storytelling, artistic expression & play.
Lectures, conversations & practical exercises. More info on Workshops page.
Planned as group workshops in Serbia and the UK, online, and in situ. Please let me know if you are interested in attending the workshops at milana@poets-mavericks-and-prophets.com, and I’ll keep you posted on all the news. The workshop dates and full curriculum will be finalised and published 31 August 2021.
Academia
If you would like to read my theoretical work on film, particularly the psychology of cinema, film as the alchemical medium, and the idea of archetypal enchantment, please visit either my Lola On Film blog or Academia.edu where I also upload my papers, research and video materials.
Research interests
Art psychotherapy, psychology of cinema, psychology and alchemy, alchemical symbolism in art, women in the arts, female gaze, feminist film theory, transpersonal and archetypal psychology, cinema as therapy (spectatorship, filmmaking), visual anthropology, cinéma vérité, experimental cinema, film noir, documentary film, transrealism, psychogeography, storytelling in art therapy, psychology of exceptional human experiences, consciousness & culture.
Notes On Alchemical Psychology
Notes On Alchemical Psychology is a series of texts dedicated to personal creative therapeutic work, merging the old ways & the new.
A scribe’s pilgrimage through the spheres of elegant, respectable left brain academia, into the wild, ephemeral mysteries of the right hemisphere.
Find out more at Alchemy.
- Windmills Of Our Mind – on solving riddles in our sleep with music.
- Lost & Found – on found objects, and how they help us unweave patterns.
- The Holy Juxtaposition – the potency of juxtaposition, assisting realignment.
- Sacred Spaces & Sovereignty – on protection spaces can offer, infused meaning.
- Stargazer Express – the Great Conjunction on Solstice hour.
- Clash Of The Titans – Saturn in Aquarius square Uranus in Taurus.
- Emotional Archeology – on approaching our photo archives as oracles.
- Hidden In Plain Sight – Russian Dolls, rising sign, all things hidden in plain sight.
Find more alchemical storytelling, art and imagery at Poets, Mavericks & Prophets on Instagram.
Experimental Film
Alchemical storytelling and film art. For my docs and experimental shorts, please visit Poets, Mavericks & Prophets on Vimeo. where I will be uploading more of my work, past, present, and future.
Lola On Film
All my film writings, articles & reviews, and assorted filmology live at Lola On Film, created to deconstruct the spectacle, assess the state of film culture and hopefully help illuminate cinema’s place in society, as well as in our individual psychology. You can also find out more on my film work, curating, events, and guest appearances on Free Seed On Soho on Soho Radio.
In Filmology I go a bit more esoteric & synchromystic, contemplating on film, psychology & the metaphysics of cinema, in Film Theory I collect my academic texts for all my fellow film scholars & students, and in Film Culture you’ll find my impressions of where cinema art is at now, as a profession, a cultural phenomena, a physical space, and a medium. Also, a bit about my past curatorial and promotional work, and podcasts on film. Film Reviews are the main offering of Lola On Film, the films picked both by intention and happenstance.
