Podcast
The Laughing Mystics: Jungian Psychology, Christian Spirituality, and Laughter
Hosted by Laura Lewis-Barr, Jungian Artist - Marci Madary DMin, Educator, Spiritual Director · EN
The Laughing Mystics: Explore Christianity and Depth Psychology through weekly scripture reflections and lively conversations between friends. Each week, Marci shares her Christian perspective and infectious laughter, while Laura offers insights from Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell. Together, they also explore the profound ideas of Ilia Delio, Richard Rohr, and other evolutionary thinkers of psychology and theology. This happy pair offer as many questions as answers. They invite listeners to reflect on mystery, faith, doubt, spirituality, and personal growth.
25episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Innocence - 14th Sunday
5d ago00:30:52Tap to summarize(74) 14th SundayWhere am I young and innocent in a good way?We talk about the baggage and burdens that we lug around all the time and the importance of play.Zechariah's storyMore about yokesMore about James FinleySong from Rent about baggageSunday ReadingsThank you for listening! You're invited to join our FB community at https://www.facebook.com/laughingmystics/Need more poetry in your life? Visit Marci's blog and/or subscribe to Laura's new substack and receive one of her fresh poems delivered to you periodically. Questions? Comments? Bring your voice to the conversation. We'd like to SHARE THE MIC with you! Send an audio from your phone with a question or comment to Laughing.Mystics@gmail.comWe now have an easier way for you to leave a review or rating, using this link! RateThisPodcast.com/thelaughingmysticsPlease follow us to be alerted for new episodes. We hope you'll share this passion project with others, write a review, or rate/like our podcast on your favorite platform!pod.link/1799776273New episodes now released on Thursday mornings!For more on Marci Madary visit https://www.insideoutspirituality.com/For more on Laura Lewis-Barr visit https://psychescinema.com/Want to support The Laughing Mystics? We now have MERCH! Visit https://www.zazzle.com/store/laughing_mystics/products(0ur show notes are always filled with many links. If your platform doesn't show them, visit the "episode webpage" or our Spotify page.)Music licensed from Artlist#jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #richardrohr #progressivechristianity #jungianwisdom #mysticalchristianity #religioustext #transpersonalpsychology
Transcribe →Unexpected Rewards in my Life - 13th Sunday
2w ago00:40:57Tap to summarize(73) 13th Sunday in Ordinary TimeWhen have I been rewarded for doing the right thing, when I didn’t expect a reward?What is the rock and hard place that I’m in (or have been in?) In the Bible there are seven stories of barren women: three of the four matriarchs, Sarah (Genesis 11:30), Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31); Hannah, mother of the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 1-2); the anonymous wife of Manoah, mother of Samson (Judges 13); and the “great woman of Shunem,” also called the Shunammite, an acolyte of the prophet Elisha and Elizabeth. In the Bible, barrenness refers to the physical inability to conceive, but spiritually, it symbolizes a woman who experiences waiting, disgrace, and unrequited longing. To be a barren woman is to be forced to wait for a deliverance that only the Lord can provide. It is a powerful metaphor. Ilia Delio, her book about Jung-- The Not Yet God, Carl Jung, Teilhard de Chardin and the Relational Whole More about Death cafes More about Marie Louise Von Franz Sunday ReadingsThank you for listening! You're invited to join our FB community at https://www.facebook.com/laughingmystics/Need more poetry in your life? Visit Marci's blog and/or subscribe to Laura's new substack and receive one of her fresh poems delivered to you periodically. Questions? Comments? Bring your voice to the conversation. We'd like to SHARE THE MIC with you! Send an audio from your phone with a question or comment to Laughing.Mystics@gmail.comWe now have an easier way for you to leave a review or rating, using this link! RateThisPodcast.com/thelaughingmysticsPlease follow us to be alerted for new episodes. We hope you'll share this passion project with others, write a review, or rate/like our podcast on your favorite platform!pod.link/1799776273New episodes now released on Thursday mornings!For more on Marci Madary visit https://www.insideoutspirituality.com/For more on Laura Lewis-Barr visit https://psychescinema.com/Want to support The Laughing Mystics? We now have MERCH! Visit https://www.zazzle.com/store/laughing_mystics/products(0ur show notes are always filled with many links. If your platform doesn't show them, visit the "episode webpage" or our Spotify page.)Music licensed from Artlist#jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #richardrohr #progressivechristianity #jungianwisdom #mysticalchristianity #religioustext #transpersonalpsychology
Transcribe →Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed - 12th Sunday
3w ago00:36:39Tap to summarize(72) 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time"What is something in my life that was concealed, then later revealed?""How have I been tested by God?""How have I been betrayed?"Spiritual bypassing is a term coined by John Welwood. “Although most of us were sincerely trying to work on ourselves, I noticed a widespread tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks." When we are spiritually bypassing, we often use the goal of awakening or liberation to rationalize what I call premature transcendence: trying to rise above the raw and messy side of our humanness before we have fully faced and made peace with it. And then we tend to use absolute truth to disparage or dismiss relative human needs, feelings, psychological problems, relational difficulties, and developmental deficits. I see this as an “occupational hazard” of the spiritual path...."This great graphic and more on this topic can be found at https://members.soulsandhearts.com/blog/spiritual-bypassing-catholic-style In Maya cosmology and healing tradition, the womb is not merely a reproductive organ but a sacred seat of life, power, and spiritual connection. It is central to the cycles of birth, fertility, and transformation, and is deeply intertwined with the Maya worldview.Sacred and Spiritual RoleThe Maya viewed the womb as the dwelling place of the soul and a conduit to the spiritual realm Ananda. It is linked to the cycles of life, death, and rebirth, often symbolizing a passage from one state to another—pregnancy, for example, was sometimes described in Nahuatl (related to Maya culture) with words rooted in death, signifying a transformation Yucatán Magazine. The goddess Ixchel, patron of childbirth, midwifery, and fertility, was central to this understanding, with her sanctuary on Isla Mujeres becoming a pilgrimage site Yucatán Magazine.Omega PointHome | Center for ChristogenesisSunday ReadingsThank you for listening! You're invited to join our FB community at https://www.facebook.com/laughingmystics/Need more poetry in your life? Visit Marci's blog and/or subscribe to Laura's new substack and receive one of her fresh poems delivered to you periodically. Questions? Comments? Bring your voice to the conversation. We'd like to SHARE THE MIC with you! Send an audio from your phone with a question or comment to Laughing.Mystics@gmail.comWe now have an easier way for you to leave a review or rating, using this link! RateThisPodcast.com/thelaughingmysticsPlease follow us to be alerted for new episodes. We hope you'll share this passion project with others, write a review, or rate/like our podcast on your favorite platform!pod.link/1799776273New episodes now released on Thursday mornings!For more on Marci Madary visit https://www.insideoutspirituality.com/For more on Laura Lewis-Barr visit https://psychescinema.com/Want to support The Laughing Mystics? We now have MERCH! Visit https://www.zazzle.com/store/laughing_mystics/products(0ur show notes are always filled with many links. If your platform doesn't show them, visit the "episode webpage" or our Spotify page.)Music licensed from Artlist#jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #richardrohr #progressivechristianity #jungianwisdom #mysticalchristianity #religioustext #transpersonalpsychology
Transcribe →Imploding Exploding Images of God
4w ago00:43:03Tap to summarize(71) How have your experience and beliefs about God changed?We share the mic with Chelley Gardner-Smith. Thank you Chelly!Saint Simeon Stylites (circa 390–459 AD), the famous Syrian Christian ascetic who lived for 37 years atop a pillar. He pioneered a unique form of asceticism known as the stylites (from the Greek word stylos, meaning "pillar"). To escape the massive crowds of pilgrims and followers seeking his counsel, he retreated to a small platform on top of a giant column in the Syrian desert, living there until his death. Eagle Poem | The Poetry Foundationby Joy Harjo Why More Americans Are Seeking Religion - The New York Times https://share.google/h3BzKx8oDhkql6COS The Sunday ReadingsThank you for listening! You're invited to join our FB community at https://www.facebook.com/laughingmystics/Need more poetry in your life? Visit Marci's blog and/or subscribe to Laura's new substack and receive one of her fresh poems delivered to you periodically. Questions? Comments? Bring your voice to the conversation. We'd like to SHARE THE MIC with you! Send an audio from your phone with a question or comment to Laughing.Mystics@gmail.comWe now have an easier way for you to leave a review or rating, using this link! RateThisPodcast.com/thelaughingmysticsPlease follow us to be alerted for new episodes. We hope you'll share this passion project with others, write a review, or rate/like our podcast on your favorite platform!pod.link/1799776273New episodes now released on Thursday mornings!For more on Marci Madary visit https://www.insideoutspirituality.com/For more on Laura Lewis-Barr visit https://psychescinema.com/Want to support The Laughing Mystics? We now have MERCH! Visit https://www.zazzle.com/store/laughing_mystics/products(0ur show notes are always filled with many links. If your platform doesn't show them, visit the "episode webpage" or our Spotify page.)Music licensed from Artlist#jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #richardrohr #progressivechristianity #jungianwisdom #mysticalchristianity #religioustext #transpersonalpsychology
Transcribe →God as Food - Corpus Christi - June 7
Jun 400:49:57Tap to summarize(70) What has feed me? Where has manna come from when i didn't expect it?The historical ritual or concept of "eating God"—known anthropologically and psychologically as theophagy—isa widespread cross-cultural archetype.Torah as Bread: In rabbinic literature, the Torah is explicitly called the true bread of life. The physical act of eating bread is mirrored by the spiritual act of consuming, digesting, and studying scripture. https://www.wisdomlib.org/concept/bread-of-lifeWisdom Library The Showbread (Lechem HaPanim): In the ancient Tabernacle, twelve loaves of bread (literally & Bread of the Presence) sat constantly before God. This bread symbolized continuous spiritual fellowship between the divine and humanity, representing a spiritual food that never spoiledThe historical ritual or concept of eating god—known anthropologically and psychologically as theophagy—is a widespread cross-cultural archetype. The Aztec Sacrament of TeocualoOne of the most striking, highly documented non-Christian historical examples of theophagy comes fromthe Aztecs, who practiced a ritual literally called Teocualo, meaning god-eating.The Tzoalli Statues: Prior to major festivals honoring deities like Huitzilopochtli (the sun and war god) or Ometochtli (the pulque god), priests molded human-sized statues of the god using ground amaranth seeds, toasted maize, and honey or human sacrificial blood.The Ritual Execution: The statue was treated as a living entity. At the climax of the ceremony, priests performed a symbolic sacrifice, killing the dough statue by driving a wooden stake or flint knife through its heart.Distribution to the Public: The statue was then broken into small pieces and distributed to the entire community, starting with the rulers and warriors down to commoners. The Aztecs believed that eating these fragments filled them with the physical strength, cosmic power, and divine protection of the deity.Marie-Louise von Franz - WikipediaSunday ReadingsThank you for listening! You're invited to join our FB community at https://www.facebook.com/laughingmystics/Need more poetry in your life? Visit Marci's blog and/or subscribe to Laura's new substack and receive one of her fresh poems delivered to you periodically. Questions? Comments? Bring your voice to the conversation. We'd like to SHARE THE MIC with you! Send an audio from your phone with a question or comment to Laughing.Mystics@gmail.comWe now have an easier way for you to leave a review or rating, using this link! RateThisPodcast.com/thelaughingmysticsPlease follow us to be alerted for new episodes. We hope you'll share this passion project with others, write a review, or rate/like our podcast on your favorite platform!pod.link/1799776273New episodes now released on Thursday mornings!For more on Marci Madary visit https://www.insideoutspirituality.com/For more on Laura Lewis-Barr visit https://psychescinema.com/Want to support The Laughing Mystics? We now have MERCH! Visit https://www.zazzle.com/store/laughing_mystics/products(0ur show notes are always filled with many links. If your platform doesn't show them, visit the "episode webpage" or our Spotify page.)Music licensed from Artlist#jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #richardrohr #progressivechristianity #jungianwisdom #mysticalchristianity #religioustext #transpersonalpsychology
Transcribe →The Dance of God in my Life - Trinity Sunday - May 31, 2026
May 2800:38:47Tap to summarize(69) Our Question: How do I experience the reality of "The Trinity" in my daily life? The Greek word translated believe is pisteuō (πιστεύω). And it carries a much richer meaning than simple mental agreement. It means to trust, rely upon, entrust oneself to, and align one’s life with someone.And from Marcus Borg - Thus in John, this verse is not about believing a set of statements about Jesus now for the sake of heaven later. It is about beloving Jesus and beloving God as known in Jesus, in the incarnation, and entering into "the life of the age to come" now. It is not about people going to hell because they don't believe. It is about the path into life with God now. Full article here. The book Laura was trying to remember - Death by Suburb: How to Keep the Suburbs from Killing Your Soul. The Sunday ReadingsThank you for listening! You're invited to join our FB community at https://www.facebook.com/laughingmystics/Need more poetry in your life? Visit Marci's blog and/or subscribe to Laura's new substack and receive one of her fresh poems delivered to you periodically. Questions? Comments? Bring your voice to the conversation. We'd like to SHARE THE MIC with you! Send an audio from your phone with a question or comment to Laughing.Mystics@gmail.comWe now have an easier way for you to leave a review or rating, using this link! RateThisPodcast.com/thelaughingmysticsPlease follow us to be alerted for new episodes. We hope you'll share this passion project with others, write a review, or rate/like our podcast on your favorite platform!pod.link/1799776273New episodes now released on Thursday mornings!For more on Marci Madary visit https://www.insideoutspirituality.com/For more on Laura Lewis-Barr visit https://psychescinema.com/Want to support The Laughing Mystics? We now have MERCH! Visit https://www.zazzle.com/store/laughing_mystics/products(0ur show notes are always filled with many links. If your platform doesn't show them, visit the "episode webpage" or our Spotify page.)Music licensed from Artlist#jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #richardrohr #progressivechristianity #jungianwisdom #mysticalchristianity #religioustext #transpersonalpsychology
Transcribe →On Fire with God - Pentecost - May 24, 2026
May 2100:47:13Tap to summarize(68) Pentecost – Our question: When have I had a "fiery" experience of God? Marci is in a singing mood. Laura offers a quote from Marcus Borg: Before Christianity became the civil religion of Rome in 337 CE, to name Jesus as Lord was to challenge the empire. It was a revolutionary statement. The “proclamation of Jesus as Son of God, Lord, and Savior directly countered Roman Imperial theology…. Jesus was Lord and the emperor was not! “Jesus is Lord” was high treason!… (The )message challenged the normalcy of civilization, then and now, with an alternative vision of how life on earth can and should be. “Jesus is Lord” offers fundamental opposition… Who is our Lord: Jesus or an empire? Jesus Christ as Lord led to resistance to the imperial vision, and advocacy of a different vision of the way the world can be”. (Marcus Borg- The First Paul) We both share some of our interpersonal challenges and explore the idea of “being one Body” and what that means in daily life and how does that relate to having healthy boundaries. We ask ourselves and you: what question does the story of my life ask me to answer, for myself and the world? The Sunday ReadingsThank you for listening! You're invited to join our FB community at https://www.facebook.com/laughingmystics/Need more poetry in your life? Visit Marci's blog and/or subscribe to Laura's new substack and receive one of her fresh poems delivered to you periodically. Questions? Comments? Bring your voice to the conversation. We'd like to SHARE THE MIC with you! Send an audio or video from your phone with a question, reflection, or comment to Laughing.Mystics@gmail.comWe now have an easier way for you to leave a review or rating, using this link! RateThisPodcast.com/thelaughingmysticsPlease follow us to be alerted for new episodes. We hope you'll share this passion project with others, write a review, or rate/like our podcast on your favorite platform!pod.link/1799776273New episodes now released on Thursday mornings!For more on Marci Madary visit https://www.insideoutspirituality.com/For more on Laura Lewis-Barr visit https://psychescinema.com/Want to support The Laughing Mystics? We now have MERCH! Visit https://www.zazzle.com/store/laughing_mystics/products(0ur show notes are always filled with many links. If your platform doesn't show them, visit the "episode webpage" or our Spotify page.)Music licensed from Artlist#jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #richardrohr #progressivechristianity #jungianwisdom #mysticalchristianity #religioustext #transpersonalpsychology
Transcribe →The Angels Say, "Stop Looking Up." (Look Within)
May 1400:38:23Tap to summarize(67) Ascension Sunday. Our Question: How do I experience God?Join us today for our lengthy discussion of the story of the Ascension. What do you make of it?We struggle with the second reading and the Gospel. After our recording Laura found this great quote from Richard Rohr re: the "Great Commision" at the end of Matthew's gospel. In our discussion Marci got us there anyway but it would have been nice to have had this then! " If I wanted to create a great people, what I’ve got to do is get them outside of their country, their religion, their nationality, by saying: “Go give the message to everybody else,” and then you will find yourself converted by the people you thought you were supposed to convert. We call it “reverse mission.”https://cac.org/podcasts/reframing-the-great-commission/The Sunday ReadingsThank you for listening! You're invited to join our FB community at https://www.facebook.com/laughingmystics/Need more poetry in your life? Visit Marci's blog and/or subscribe to Laura's new substack and receive one of her fresh poems delivered to you periodically. Questions? Comments? Bring your voice to the conversation. We'd like to SHARE THE MIC with you! Send an audio or video from your phone with a reflection, question or comment to Laughing.Mystics@gmail.comWe now have an easier way for you to leave a review or rating, using this link! RateThisPodcast.com/thelaughingmysticsPlease follow us to be alerted for new episodes. We hope you'll share this passion project with others, write a review, or rate/like our podcast on your favorite platform!pod.link/1799776273New episodes now released on Thursday mornings!For more on Marci Madary visit https://www.insideoutspirituality.com/For more on Laura Lewis-Barr visit https://psychescinema.com/Want to support The Laughing Mystics? We now have MERCH! Visit https://www.zazzle.com/store/laughing_mystics/products(0ur show notes are always filled with many links. If your platform doesn't show them, visit the "episode webpage" or our Spotify page.)Music licensed from Artlist#jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #richardrohr #progressivechristianity #jungianwisdom #mysticalchristianity #religioustext #transpersonalpsychology
Transcribe →Inner and Outer Journeys - Miracles, Suffering, Charisms
May 700:43:10Tap to summarize(66) The 6th Sunday of Easter. Our question: What has been a miracle in my life? Laura shares some insights from her recent trip to Turkey - the "second Holy Land." We talk about charismatic leaders and our openness to religious ecstacy. We offer several quotes by Rumi and St. Julian of Norwich, and explore the tradition of the mystics -- intimacy with the divine. Marci Madary offered this quote from MLK Jr. "All I'm saying is simply this, that all life is interrelated, that somehow we're caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality."From excerpts from Martin Luther King Jr’s speech at Western Michigan University, 18 December 1963https://libguides.wmich.edu/mlkatwmu/speechRumi quote - “Take the famous utterance, "I am God." Some people think this is a great pretension, but "I am God" is in fact a great humility. Those who say, instead, "I am a servant of God" believe that two exist, themselves and God. But those who say, "I am God" have become nothing and have cast themselves to the winds. They say, "I am God" meaning, "I am not, God is all. There is no existence but God. I have lost all separation. I am nothing." In this the humility is greater.The Sunday ReadingsThank you for listening! You're invited to join our FB community at https://www.facebook.com/laughingmystics/Need more poetry in your life? Visit Marci's blog and/or subscribe to Laura's new substack and receive one of her fresh poems delivered to you periodically. Questions? Comments? Bring your voice to the conversation. We'd like to SHARE THE MIC with you! Send an audio from your phone with a question or comment to Laughing.Mystics@gmail.comWe now have an easier way for you to leave a review or rating, using this link! RateThisPodcast.com/thelaughingmysticsPlease follow us to be alerted for new episodes. We hope you'll share this passion project with others, write a review, or rate/like our podcast on your favorite platform!pod.link/1799776273New episodes now released on Thursday mornings!For more on Marci Madary visit https://www.insideoutspirituality.com/For more on Laura Lewis-Barr visit https://psychescinema.com/Want to support The Laughing Mystics? We now have MERCH! Visit https://www.zazzle.com/store/laughing_mystics/products(0ur show notes are always filled with many links. If your platform doesn't show them, visit the "episode webpage" or our Spotify page.)Music licensed from Artlist#jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #richardrohr #progressivechristianity #jungianwisdom #mysticalchristianity #religioustext #transpersonalpsychology
Transcribe →Poems, Proposals, Process – The Church Moves Forward
Apr 3000:43:53Tap to summarize5th Sunday easter - We begin with a poem by Lynn Unger. Our question: What is a memory I have of visiting a spiritual dwelling? Do I have a memoryof visiting one from another spiritual tradition? We read of complaints to early church leaders and imagineour “complaints” today. We talk about the paradox of stones, and note that it is one of the archetypes of the Self. If we were going to create a new lectionary, what other readings might we add? Marci names poets: Joy Hardjoe, Maya Angelou, Mary Oliver, or Tracy K Smith. Laura mentions Wayne Teasdale and his passion for interspirituality.The Sunday ReadingsThank you for listening! You're invited to join our FB community at https://www.facebook.com/laughingmystics/Need more poetry in your life? Visit Marci's blog and/or subscribe to Laura's new substack and receive one of her fresh poems delivered to you periodically. Questions? Comments? Bring your voice to the conversation. We'd like to SHARE THE MIC with you! Send an audio from your phone with a question or comment to Laughing.Mystics@gmail.comWe now have an easier way for you to leave a review or rating, using this link! RateThisPodcast.com/thelaughingmysticsPlease follow us to be alerted for new episodes. We hope you'll share this passion project with others, write a review, or rate/like our podcast on your favorite platform!pod.link/1799776273New episodes now released on Thursday mornings!For more on Marci Madary visit https://www.insideoutspirituality.com/For more on Laura Lewis-Barr visit https://psychescinema.com/Want to support The Laughing Mystics? We now have MERCH! Visit https://www.zazzle.com/store/laughing_mystics/products(0ur show notes are always filled with many links. If your platform doesn't show them, visit the "episode webpage" or our Spotify page.)Music licensed from Artlist#jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #richardrohr #progressivechristianity #jungianwisdom #mysticalchristianity #religioustext #transpersonalpsychology
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