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
All people who claim to be spiritual try to get away from the fact of the body; they want to destroy it in order to See More
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
Another wonderful version of the Peaceable Kingdom by John August Swanson.
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
The Peaceable Kingdom, Edward Hicks, at the MET, part of our discussion this week, from Isaiah's beautiful images. pod.link/1799776273 See More
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
Jung argued to an astonished scientific public that the mind functions best when it is connected to archetypal symbols, which free us from the literalism See More
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
Dreams and visions were regarded in both Old and New Testaments as revelations from God. Those skilled in their interpretation, such as Daniel or Joseph, See More
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
The task of poetry and metaphor is to shatter the surface appearance of things, so that the sacred depth is made manifest. The poetic imagination See More
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
Outside the sound booth getting ready to record. Marci Madary
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
We think of all sorts of excuses, of course: dealing with the unconcious, we say, is only for the mentally ill; dreams are only for See More
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
New episode Thursday! 2nd Sunday of Advent - John the Baptist! Our question: What events in my life have helped separate the wheat and the See More
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
Thank you to our listeners! Marci Madary
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
John the Baptist's tough words this week, "His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into See More
The Laughing Mystics: An unorthodox journey through the liturgical year
I cannot define for you what God is. I can only say that my work has proved empirically that the pattern of God exists in 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.