About Mary
Mythologist • Writer • Creative Arts Facilitator
If I were to describe my essential self, I’d say: always following my creative urges to see where they lead and what I discover, and always looking for ways to share that experience. Making “things” is a process of making connections and so, it’s a vehicle for participation in the world.
Early in my career, I worked with children, using creativity as the pathway into learning all subjects, because when you are creatively engaged, discovery happens and understanding develops. Along the way, I noticed something funny about many adults: how quick they were to label creative activities as “for children,” and how consistently, even phobic-ly, they would plant themselves outside of that magic circle where play and imaginal expression happen. I came to the conclusion that it’s adults who most desperately need a way into this space, and so I shifted my focus to an adult audience.
Now, the world is on fire, so what difference does this make? I’ve come to believe that the repression of the creative urge has led to mighty dysfunction in our culture. We hold back creatively when we’re afraid of what will come out. What may come out is not only your awkwardness with self-expression, but also the many things you’ve lost, forgotten, or avoided dealing with. There is a way of practicing creative expression that opens you gently, allowing the flow of your less conscious material, like a river, into awareness. This practice can be cleansing and healing. It can catalyze personal discovery and nourish strong and vital relationships.
To emphasize creative expression seems like a small thing in this world run amok, BUT— I do believe that the small things are among the most important things that we, as individuals and together, can do to restore balance. If we were to slow down and tune in more immediately and directly to our drives and impulses, rather than compulsively, chaotically acting them out without consideration, then our actions and interactions would be more balanced and grounded, less pathological, and our communities would grow stronger. Thus, I have become a champion for the importance of creative expression for the health and well-being of the individual (you) and society (us). For healing, and renewal, and for fun, even in the face of fire.
I Love to Make Things: Art… Cookies… Sweaters… Friends… And I Love Mythology.
All the things we make and share are the threads that weave us together.
Making Myth
It’s been my life to explore and share creatively, and I've found this really isn’t the norm! To express creatively, to feel the enjoyment and the healing of that, to know the value of the discoveries that come through that: what should and could be common experience is all too rare. Holding space for shared creative experience is my calling.
In the ‘70s, I studied Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Since then, I’ve been teaching at every level and making all manner of things. I’ve learned that fostering creative engagement is the best means to teach anything.
I returned to school in 2012, earning my Masters and then PhD in Mythological Studies and Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. My research demonstrates how the creative process facilitates the relationship between intuition and intellect, and between self and other.
People have asked me, “What does this have to do with Mythology?” In broad terms, myth is the shared art and stories of a culture—exactly what we explore on a micro-level in creative practice. I help people to become aware of the myths that are active in their lives and worlds, through creative myth-making projects.
Mythology grows out of experience, performing a crucial function: it bridges what we know with what we don’t. This mysterious area between “real” and “pretend” is where dreams and theories, habits and traditions, and all manner of creative things come into being.
Myth is certainly found in story form, but is also expressed in very many other ways: through all of the arts… through government and religion, architecture, craft, and design…dreams, memories, habits…speech patterns, foodways, family traditions…even scientific procedures, economic strategies, and political ideologies… In short, every human construction is mythically infused.
All this occurs at the interface between consciousness and the unconscious, building an incredibly rich territory for exploration and discovery. Dig in!
“Mary is peaceful, welcoming, playful, and encouraging, knowing immediately how to help with a calm and loving approach. If you have the opportunity to participate in any activity with Mary, I would encourage you to jump at the chance.”
— Janet Taylor, Founder and Director of I Am Home
"The Creative Arts can add to our repertoire of skills to help us heal and live richer lives. Dr. Lounsbury has the ability to create a safe space for self-expression and exploration through the use of expert group facilitation skills.”
— Elizabeth N. Lima, PhD, Clinical Psychologist
“Open up that space between inner and outer, self and other, real and pretend… That is where imagination enters! Where creativity bubbles up and new possibilities emerge.”
— Mary Lounsbury
