Our newest project! A podcast! A dialogue between mystical Christianity and Depth Psychology – “The Laughing Mystics.” You can find more thoughts about our podcast here.
Good friends Marci Madary & Laura Lewis-Barr bring differing perspectives to the Sunday readings of the liturgical calendar. Each week Marci shares her mystical Christian insights & infectious laughter with Laura, who ponders what Carl Jung & Joseph Campbell might say about these scriptures. Unscripted & lively, Laura & Marci offer as many questions as answers as to how Depth Psychology & Christianity might come together. New episodes every Friday! Write to us at Laughing.Mystics@gmail.com, Join our FB community!
Opening intro from our early episodes: I’m Marcy Madary and I am a church lady. I have worked in ministry of one kind or another in my entire professional life. I have my doctorate in theology and spirituality and I love connecting with people and working with them on their journey. I’m Laura Lewis-Barr and what I’m passionate about is studying symbolic language. I think that the Bible and sacred literature in general lends itself to this kind of reading, and it, for me brings the reading very alive and helps me apply it to my daily life. The mystery of my daily life.
Find us on your favorite podcast platform here!
I’m thrilled with this new podcast project. My history with the Catholic church is a central part of my individuation journey. I felt a calling to create this new art-work , especially when the brilliant and talented Marci Madary agreed to join me in the local sound booth. While we both do some preparation for our conversations on the Sunday’s scripture readings, neither of use know what we will say, and we both have no memory of what we’ve said! We are clearly “inspired by the Holy Spirit” (Marci) or “allowing the Unconscious to speak” (me).
For my part, there is great joy but also some fear as I share a symbolic view of the scripture. When I moved toward a symbolic viewpoint (after reading some biblical scholarship in a religion class) I was extremely disoriented and anxious. I know that some people may be angry at me for what I’m saying. And some won’t care about this subject at all. If you’re curious about a conversation that includes a symbolic reading of the Jesus story, check us out!
Metaphors carry us from one place to another, they enable us to cross boundaries that would otherwise be closed to us. Spiritual truths that transcend time and space can only be borne in metaphorical vessels whose meaning is found in their connotations—that is, in the cloud of witnesses to the many sides of truth that they spontaneously evoke—not in their denotations, the hard, factual, uni-dimensional casings of their historical reference.
From the introduction of Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell) (p. 33)
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
Huston Smith, once blithely remarked to me that a debate he had with Joseph Campbell about the role of myth in religion inspired him to See more
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
NOT a Valentine's Day Poem.
2/14/26
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
Self love is the hardest love of all? Quote from Jung, in his Nietzsche's Zarathustra: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1934-1939. “To love someone See more
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
From the wonderful Jungian James Hollis - As Jesus is reported to have said in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, “If you bring forth what See more
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
A poem.
2/13/26
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
New episode Thursday! Sixth Sunday in extraordinary time. "Choosing the Good"
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
Working on the Lenten readings for an upcoming episode, I found this quote by Fr. Rohr powerful and helpful. He is responding to this text See more
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
In an upcoming episode we again talk about metaphor and Joseph Campell. "Metaphors carry us from one place to another, they enable us to cross See more
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
www.facebook.com/share/p/14TFS33wZSN/ This is Laura's film Facebook page. She's had some good news on there lately. See more
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
But the important thing about myth is that it’s not just something that you believe, a myth is essentially a program for action. And unless See more
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
Depth psychology does not, in my view, seek to replace religion, but does seek to "dream onward" the processes that have been lost to consciousness See more
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
Beginner’s mind is an attitude. It doesn’t mean you don’t know anything. It means that you are spacious enough in that moment to not be See more
Poetry from “The New Verse” an online publication of various poets.
Also, from last year’s newsletter here’s a link to some of Laura’s published poetry.