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Nataša Pantović: ‘I meditate in an attempt to recall my dreams’ Maltese-Serbian novelist Nataša Pantović tells all in our Q&A 9 September 2020, 8:00am by Laura Calleja
Nataša Pantović is a Maltese-Serbian novelist, management consultant, adoptive parent, and ‘ancient worlds explorer’ based in Malta. Ama: Playing the Glass Bead Game with Pythagoras and other books by Pantović are published by Artof4Elements can be purchased on Amazon.
What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Meditate in an attempt to recall my dreams. A dream diary is the most beautiful technique I’ve learned from Jung – he understood dreams to be messages from the unconscious, and through his own self-analysis, containing imagery that illustrates our internal soul “messaging” system.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
My dad, who had a PhD in law, used to discuss ancient philosophers with me, introducing me to Aristotle’s ‘eudaimonia’ - the “long-term happiness” that achieved throughout a lifetime when human beings achieve health, wealth, knowledge, friends and this in turn leads to the perfection of human nature... What do you never leave the house without? A book or a note-book...
Pick three words that describe yourself “Arche”, “Logos”, and “Harmonia”.
What do you consider to be your greatest achievement? I could morph into a dolphin…
What is your guiltiest pleasure? Reading the Babylon stories written in 2,500 BC. Researching Ancient Greek, Chinese and Egyptian characters or Akkadian that symbolically narrate the stories of advanced civilizations of 2,500 BC. Discovering “real” history or how I call it “playing the glass bead game with Pythagoras”.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you? I “jumped” into the role of parenting, adopting as a single mother, two instead of one kid (as originally planned) even though I had no husband to support me within this journey. The madness of my little “mission” left me at home, babysitting and writing books, one after the other, since my creative flow kept overpowering me. Life is FLOW!
Property and cars aside what’s the most expensive thing you’ve ever bought?
Leonardo da Vinci’s A3 size Complete Book of Art. What is one thing you wish you knew when you were younger? Music, one thing I did not get as a gift from my parents. Perhaps I will be reborn as a musician.
Who’s your inspiration? Giordano Bruno, Herman Hesse, and Tolstoy.
What has been your biggest challenge? Original thinking. Any author’s dream is to be able to play the audience like a conductor does an orchestra. Take it onto a journey.
If you weren’t an ‘Ancient Worlds Consciousness Researcher’ what would you be doing?
I have already hugged a 3,000-years-old Maori tree in New Zealand and crossed the Savanah on foot and slept in the deserts of Africa, and climbed the hills of Nepal, danced barefoot under starry nights… so not researching, assuming the kids are no longer in need of my support, would probably take me back to exploring Serbian hills...
Do you believe in God? As a dynamic, Orphic, hermaphrodite Universe of Consciousness, Yin and Yang manifestations... then yes.
If you could have dinner with any person, dead or alive, who would it be? The full cast of Ama, my fiction book: the bat, who is also a story-teller, Pythagoras, who I (as a writer) meet jumping through a universal consciousness portal, Ama, the Kenyan goddess who meets the philosophers in her coffee house, Father Benedict, an Orthodox priest, her father Ottavio who is an alchemist… wow, what a party!
What’s your worst habit?
Never ending my stories. I was re-writing A-Ma for long 10 years. The issue of white supremacy, the institutional racism, female vs. male conflict, the East vs. West struggle, the Yin vs. Yang or Dogs vs. Cats, it is a story repeated over and over again. If you are a reader, you probably get one masterpiece a year, a book that is a must read, and as an educated audience, you are deeply grateful to be holding this type of a book in your hands, but it still does not change your life. How many books have changed your life? Will a book be read in 30 years? Will my book be read in 30 years?
What are you like when you’re drunk?
I have never ever been drunk. Can you believe this? I also do not take any medication...
Who would you have play you in a film?
I wouldn’t have me “played” in a film. But I would have my daughter play Ama...
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Conscious and sub-conscious abuse of one’s own body or mind or emotions... I feel deep sorrow when people abuse the gift of life.
What music would you have played at your funeral? Jamming jazz by all participants.
What is your most treasured material possession? Tobby, my cat, even though she “owns” us, not the other way round.
What is your earliest memory? Taking a teddy bear to the hospital in Belgrade, Serbia, that was closed for visits, to my sister who was operated and was gone from my life, for more than three months. I recall, at the age of 3, running under the nursing sister’s legs to give her the bear.
When did you last cry, and why? I cry at all times. My friend Karl Pace has just died of burning injuries, his boat set on fire...
Who would you most like to meet? Quentin Tarantino.
What’s your favorite food? As a vegetarian, a veggie meal from Krishna or a mix of forest berries from Serbia.
Who’s your favorite person on social media right now? I’m old-school. I read the newspaper. I still watch movies in the cinema, I buy the front row tickets. When I write a poem, or a story, I do not do it on a computer… all these handsome actors trying to act tortured, trying to look miserable. The life that is not real, does not appeal to me. So, no social media for me. Thanks, but no thanks...
If you could travel in time, where would you go? Ancient Malta’s Temple culture, and the time of Serbian Vinca so that I could compare the two.
What book are you reading right now? Babylonian Life and History by Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge (1884). Together with Lingua Maltese Studio Storico Etnografico e Filolgico by Caruana, published in 1896 in Italian. The latter, I have had the honour of holding it in my hands.
If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Travel through time.
What’s one thing you want to do before you die? Spend two months in Peru.
What music are you listening to at the moment? A soundtrack from Emir Kusturica’s film “Arizona Dream” by Goran Bregovic.
In the shower or when you’re working out, what do you sing/listen to? Mantras of all religions like Kirya Si, Shiva Shakti, Halleluya, AuM allaH, my kids hate me for it... the neighbours are convinced that I am a Muslim, or a Jew, or a Hindu, or a Christian in a dire need of some psychiatric help. Sometimes the kids, passers-by or dogs sing with me.
