KnotWork Storytelling: Recent Episodes
Marisa Goudy
In each KnotWork Storytelling episode, we'll explore a different story from mythology, folklore, or history, particularly from Ireland and the Celtic World. Then, my guest and I dive deep into why these ideas and characters still resonate today.
Your host is Marisa Goudy, author of The Sovereignty Knot: A Woman’s Way to Freedom, Power, Love, and Magic. She is a Myth Worker, a Story Healer, a Writing Coach, and a has an MA in Irish literature from University College Dublin.
Join us as we wander through these ancient storylines as we set out on a quest to learn from the past, better understand the present, and craft a sustainable future.
Every episode reminds us that age-old stories are medicine for this modern moment.
"The moment she reached the shoreline, she began walking, walking, walking. She didn't need a road, not when she had a stride this purposeful and undeterred."
That's Macha, goddess and woman of the Sídhe, arriving in Ireland from her home in the Otherworld. It's the start of the terrible, fascinating tale from Irish mythology about the pregnant woman forced to race against the king's horses, and it's the heart of Marisa's latest full-length Turas episode, May the Roads Rise to Meet You: Following Macha's Trail, available exclusively to paid members of Myth Workers' Hearth over on Substack.
In this episode, you’ll hear the story of Macha’s year with the mortal man she chose to love and the great betrayal that brought their affair to a devastating, world-altering conclusion.
Does Macha run? Does Macha win?
The full episode follows Macha's roads out past the finish line, into landscape, history, and myth well beyond Ulster.
Join Myth Workers' Hearth to access the full episode and the complete Turas series.
www.mythworkers.com
KnotWork Myth & Storytelling is hosted by Marisa Goudy. New public episodes are released each week.
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, a memoir, or you’re seeking to weave the mythic perspective into your creative work, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings.
OUR STORY
In the Potawatomi origin story, the pregnant Sky Woman, Giizhgokwe, falls from Sky World. She is caught by a flock of geese and lowered onto mshiké, Turtle, whose back becomes this continent we know as Turtle Island (known in Potawatomi as Mshike Minis).
Our guest, Kaitlin Curtice weaves her ancestral story with her own story. As a young mother, walking a trail outside Atlanta while nursing her baby, she felt the presence of her ancestors. These were the women who had walked before her, those who mothered their own children on the 1838 Trail of Death when 800 Potawatomi people were forced from Indiana to Kansas over a two-month-long trek.
OUR GUEST
Kaitlin Curtice is an award-winning author, poet-storyteller, and enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi Nation. She writes and speaks at the intersections of indigenous spirituality, identity, and the stories that shape us. Her books include Native, Living Resistance, and her most recent, Everything Is a Story. She also writes at The Liminality Journal and is co-founder of the Aki Institute. Kaitlin lives near Philadelphia with her family.
Find her at kaitlincurtice.com
IN THIS CONVERSATION
- As the United States marks 250 years, Kaitlin reflects on indigenous grief around the Fourth of July. “Chemokmankik” which loosely means “land of the long butchering knives”
is the Potawatomi word for the US.
- Spéirbhean, the sky woman of the Irish aisling tradition, and how Kaitlin found her resonance with Giizhgokwe across ocean and culture
- Azho gami, the Potawatomi word for "across the sea," and what it means to carry that word onto an overnight flight to Ireland
- The sacred reciprocity of kinship: why we need each other to grieve, to dream, and to build toward future generations
- Start a practice of writing love notes to Segmekwé, Mother Earth, in order to begin repairing a fractured relationship with the land
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir, or are a wellness professional or creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings.
Subscribe to Myth Workers' Hearth: www.mythworkers.com
It's the middle of the night. A wealthy woman sits alone by the fire, carding wool, when the first knock comes at the door.
Open! Open! I am the Witch of One Horn!
This is the opening of The Twelve Horned Women,” from Lady Jane Wilde's folklore collection Ancient Legends of Ireland. It’s one of several stories that Marisa weaves together in our latest full-length Turas episode, The Village Beyond the Dunes, available exclusively to paid members of Myth Workers' Hearth over on Substack.
The Twelve Horned Women come down from Sliabh na mBan, the Mountain of Women in Co. Tipperary. They take over the woman’s house and make impossible demands. These witches from the Otherworld nearly get away with murder.
But here's the question that haunts this story: were they invaders, or were they reclaiming what was always theirs?
In the full Turas episode, Marisa explores how stories like this one teach us about community: its magic, its failures, its longing, and its wounds. From Tír na mBan to Avalon to a deserted village on Achill Island, The Village Beyond the Dunes walks the terrain of everything we've lost, everything we've dreamed, and everything that might still be possible.
Join Myth Workers' Hearth to access the full episode and the complete Turas series.
www.mythworkers.com
KnotWork Myth & Storytelling is hosted by Marisa Goudy. New public episodes are released each week.
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, a memoir, or you’re seeking to weave the mythic perspective into your creative work, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings.
Our Story
The rosary has long been used to shame women and restrain sexuality, but what if it is actually the umbilical cord that connects us to The Mother?
When the rosary emerged in the 11th or 12th century, the Church offered a narrative that began with Eve’s sin and ended with apocalypse. Ordinary women were living and telling a different story. Theirs was a story that was expressed in a great circle, not in a straight line of patriarchal history.
Perdita Finna unfolds the mysteries of the rosary, reclaiming the prayers and practice as an act of power. What if, all along, the beads are a story of women’s empowerment that’s been hidden in plain sight?
Our Guest
Perdita Finn is the author of Take Back the Magic: Conversations with the Unseen World, Mothers of Magic: Summoning the Wisdom of Our Ancestors, and with her husband Clark Strand The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary. She teaches popular workshops on connecting and collaborating with both the dead and the animate everything. She lives with her family in the moss-filled shadows of the Catskill Mountains.
Joining Perdita’s free class coming up on June 25 at 8:30 PM ET. Register now for Long Story of Your Soul
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, a memoir, or you’re seeking to weave the mythic perspective into your creative work, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings.
Subscribe to Myth Workers' Hearth: www.mythworkers.com
This episode is a medieval Irish permission slip for every creative who has ever felt too raw, too unformed, or too messy to call themselves a writer. It’s for anyone whose inner critic has tried to kill the emerging work before it could grow.
OUR STORY
From the Book of Leinster (c. 1160): a strange, silent boy who hasn't spoken in fourteen years. A blacksmith father who knows how to protect what isn't ready yet. And the chief poet of Ireland, who recognizes genius before anyone else does — and has to decide what to do about it.
OUR GUEST
Kate Chadbourne is a storyteller, singer, harper, and poet, professor of Irish language and folklore, and founder of The Celtic Wisdom School. Her debut novel, The Poet on the Train, was published in 2025.
Find her at https://www.katechadbourne.com/. She tells stories each week over on YouTube @katechadbournebard
IN THIS EPISODE:
- The Irish proverb (or seanfhocail) Bíonn gach tosú lag. Every beginning is weak.
- You contain both poets. Amergin, the instinctual, unschooled self and Athairne, the credentialed institutional self are both necessary. The danger is when one swings an ax at the other.
- Feel for the bruise. Pick up your poem like an apple and find where the energy has gone soft — then ask every part to rise to the aliveness of the best part.
- Put a flower on your house. Blátham — I bloom, I flourish. Making beauty for its own sake, even a sticker in a journal no one will ever see, is the practice.
- Completing something changes you. Kate shares the moment midway through writing her novel when the inner Athairne told her to stop. She kept going. Finishing, by your own standards, for yourself, is its own transformation.
- Write with Amergin, revise with Athairne. Kate and Marisa's upgrade on Hemingway's "write drunk, edit sober."
- Father Dineen's Foclóir Gaedhilge agus Béarla
The Poet on the Train by Kate Chadbourne
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, a memoir, or you’re seeking to weave the mythic perspective into your creative work, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings.
Subscribe to Myth Workers' Hearth: www.mythworkers.com
OUR STORY
The shoreline is a threshold. When we stand at the place where the ocean meets the land, we know we’re standing in between the worlds.
In this preview of S7 Ep6, Marisa tells the story of King Canute, the Anglo-Danish king whose famous confrontation with the tide has been misread for centuries. His real message–about faith and hubris and our relationship to the power of the elements–turns out to be more urgent now than it ever was.
But the Canute story is just the doorway. The full Turas episode is a guided journey along the shorelines of the imagination and your own beloved countries. We explore the art of arrival and the power of liminality, and question what it means to truly inhabit a place rather than just pass through it.
The extended episode includes three writing prompts which invite you to explore your own history of arrivals, and your relationship with change and erosion.
This is the work that happens at Myth Workers' Hearth. Every Turas episode is built for the listener who wants to go deeper — into the myth, into the land, and into their own story.
Hear the teaser on KnotWork Myth & Storytelling: KnotWorkStorytelling.com
The full episode is waiting for you when you upgrade your subscription to the Myth Workers' Hearth: mythworkers.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, a memoir, or you’re seeking to weave the mythic perspective into your creative work, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings.
Subscribe to Myth Workers' Hearth: www.mythworkers.com
OUR STORY
Cú Chullain is Ireland’s most renowned mythological hero, and his story comes what’s seen as the greatest of Irish epics, the Táin Bo Cualigne. And yet, we’ve never told his story on KnotWork.
Clearly we were waiting for the right storyteller. In this episode, Peter Wucherpfennig offers an outsider perspective on Cú Chullain’s early life told through a modern frame: a young Phil Lynnot, front man of the iconic 70s band Thin Lizzy conjures the elements of myth. You’ll also hear WB Yeats’s "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death."
OUR GUEST
Peter Wucherpfennig is a German harpist and storyteller based in Darmstadt. After graduating in 1986, he completed fifteen months of compulsory service in the Bundeswehr before training as a nurse — a path that would prove unexpectedly resonant with the warrior myths he would later carry as a storyteller. He has worked in intensive care units since 1991. In the mid-nineties he picked up the harp and found himself in the company of Scottish storytellers. He gave his first public performance as a harpist and storyteller in 1996 (his word: disastrous) and has spent the years since traveling between the worlds of the hospital, the workers' council, and his own calling as a bard.
IN THIS EPISODE
- Cú Chulainn is remembered as the greatest hero of the Irish epic, the Táin Bó Cúailnge, and was a powerful inspiration during the 1916 Easter Rising. Peter imagines him as the outcast hero.
- The power of the mentor: just as Cú Chulainn found Scáthach, as an adult, Peter was adopted by a landlady who said "you are my third son." Such relationships open an entirely different world.
- The significance of the island apart. Whether it's Tír na nÓg or Scáthach's island fortress, this isn’t a place to stay forever, but is a place to gather new tools. What does it mean to seek out those threshold spaces in our own lives?
- The power of fellowship. Peter and Marisa remember meeting at the Bard Summer School on Clare Island in County Mayo.
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, a memoir, or you’re seeking to weave the mythic perspective into your creative work, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings.
Subscribe to Myth Workers' Hearth: www.mythworkers.com
OUR STORY
The selkie story is one of the most enduring tales in the Celtic imagination. A woman caught between two worlds, a stolen skin, and the impossible choice between the sea and the shore.
But what if the story doesn't end when she slips beneath the waves? What if it lives on in her descendants, in us?
Hear the myth on KnotWork Myth & Storytelling: KnotWorkStorytelling.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. The full Turas episode is available exclusively to paid subscribers of Myth Workers’ Hearth on Substack.
When you're ready to go deeper, the full meaning of the story is waiting at Myth Workers' Hearth: mythworkers.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, a memoir, or you’re seeking to weave the mythic perspective into your creative work, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings.
Subscribe to Myth Workers' Hearth: www.mythworkers.com
OUR STORY
Jen Murphy tells us the core tales Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, the great epic of Welsh mythology, beginning with King Math and his Goewin, his “virgin footholder” and concluding with the story of Arianrhod.
Jen concludes her telling with Blodeuwedd, who you met in S7 Ep 1.
OUR GUEST
Jen Murphy is an Irish mythologist, anthropologist and founder of The Celtic Creatives. A Dubliner born and bred, from the time she could talk, Jen's grandmother Frances O'Sullivan filled her ears with tales from Irish myth and folklore, fuelling a now 40-year fascination with the stories of her lineage. Jen's apprenticeship to following her soul's breadcrumbs has guided her formal studies in Medieval Irish and Celtic Studies, Anthropology, and Jungian Psychology. Jen supports people to remember that they have a shining soul, to dream Celtic spirituality into their modern lives by making the Celtic soul a living aesthetic—centring the soul in the everyday experience of life—through mythwork, dreamwork, and the body.
Find her on Instagram @celticreatives and at https://celticcreatives.substack.com, https://www.celticcreatives.com/
IN THIS EPISODE
- How stories choose their tellers - Jen had prepared a different tale entirely, and then this telling of Arianrhod insisted on being told
- Jen takes us on a beautiful tour of the moon's monthly cycle as a map of our own becoming
- Arianrhod as living initiator: Jen maps the three refusals: name, arms, marriage - onto her own creative journey toward the Sunset Journal, a ritual practice rooted in beginning the day at dusk
- Reclaiming the night: Jen gives up the 5am productivity myth and discovers that creating by moonlight, as a confirmed night-owl, born just before the winter solstice is simply becoming more of her nature
- Jen's Sunset Journal is launching by Lúnasa (harvest season). Be the first to know when it’s available: https://www.celticcreatives.com/sunset
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir, or are a wellness professional or creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings.
Subscribe to Myth Workers' Hearth: www.mythworkers.com
OUR STORY
We’ve told the story of King Bran and the silver branch several times on KnotWork. This time, we the woman’s story, the story of the Bean Sídhe who speaks her fifty quatrains of poetry and invites us all across the sea to Tír na mBan, the Island of Women.
ABOUT THE NEW SERIES: TURAS
Turas, the Irish word for journey, is a paid subscriber series within KnotWork Myth & Storytelling. Each episode takes us deeper into the imaginal landscape of Tír na mBan, the Island of Women from Irish mythology.
Every other week, through Samhain (early November), you’ll receive a story, an exploration of its modern echoes, and the invitation to further your own journey through writing prompts.
Turas is available exclusively to paid subscribers of Myth Workers’ Hearth on Substack.
Join us: www.mythworkers.com
IN THIS EPISODE
- Tír na mBan is a matrifocal rather than matriarchal society. Riane Eisler’s Partnership Model and the distinction between dominator and partnership cultures.
- The bean sídhe as Otherworld messenger — not a harbinger of death, but a woman who moves between worlds and weaves the energy between them.
- The Amazons in contrast with the women of Tír na mBan.
WRITING PROMPTS
- This is a story of invitation. To be invited somewhere new shows you a whole lot about the aperture of your own being. The Bean Sídhe is standing beside your dinner table and suggests you drop the fork, drop everything, and come. Feel into your first response. Then, feel further. How open or closed is your heart, your mind, your imagination?
- The Bean Sídhe invites us to the Otherworld, to a land without death or suffering, without laziness or drunkenness. She invites us to a place of song, color, abundance… That description is pretty open ended. What does your Otherworld look and feel like? Remember, it’s not about escape, it’s about relationship… this world and that world have something to offer each other.
- An Island of Women? What do you think… Perhaps that’s all the prompt you need. Or, try this: I told you my own story of censored desire, of silencing my own longing for matrifocal wisdom and women rooted knowledge. What desires are you too well-behaved to name, explore, inhabit?
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir, or are a wellness professional or creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings.
Subscribe to Myth Workers' Hearth: www.mythworkers.com
OUR STORY
Just in time for Bealtaine, the Irish festival of fertility and new life, we explore the erotic energy at the heart of all creation, specifically in the context of Celtic mythology.
We open with a brief retelling of the story of the woman made of flowers Blodeuwedd, which appears in the fourth branch of the Welsh mythological epic, the Mabinogi. You’ll hear an excerpt of Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill’s Irish language poem, “Blodeuwedd,” and the translation by John Montague.
OUR GUEST
Robert brings two decades of experience in diverse industries, including spirituality/well-being, international development, leadership development, finance and education. He is passionate about service and deeply curious about how people can facilitate sustainable transformation to enable more peace, justice, and freedom in our world. Robert’s career has enabled him to cross the private and public sectors multiple times working at and with organizations such as Concern Worldwide, The Gates Foundation, PricewaterhouseCoopers, The Crossland Group, and Kripalu. Originally from Ireland, Robert has been certified as a CPA, Irish and Celtic Shamanic practitioner, Yoga teacher, Reiki healer, Meditation teacher, and in the Enneagram.
Find him on Instagram @wicklowceltand at www.robertmulhall.com
IN THIS EPISODE
- Though Irish culture may not necessarily be directly associated with “the erotic,” the springtime festival of Bealtaine is alive erotic energy. When you look closely enough, you’ll find it is woven through Irish tradition
- The snake as through-line: Patrick's banishment of the snakes, Kundalini, and the connection between Eros, creativity, rage, and fire as expressions of the same primal force
- Manchán Magan's work recovering old Irish words for the erotic and the inseparability of desire and the natural world. See Thirty-Two Words for Field.
- The sovereignty rites at Tara and Uisneach: what it actually meant for a king to marry and consummate a relationship with the land and the goddess of sovereignty
- What gets dampened when we separate Eros from everything else. The great question: what if it's all Eros?
- Robert's poem "I Fell in Love with the Trees" and the invitation to experience nature not as backdrop but as lover, teacher, and kin
- Forgiving the body as preparation for welcoming Eros
- Fire as alchemical medicine: Robert's fire ceremony and the difference between external preparation for difficult times and internal readiness
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid newsletter subscriber, you'll have access to the special “podcast within a podcast” series called Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers’ Hearth Gatherings.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Workers’ Hearth
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid subscriber you'll be invited to join us for the Myth Workers' Salon and keep in touch with the show during my upcoming Imbolc sabbatical.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine. Words Are Magic
OUR STORY
A sacred Immram, the great voyage of a birthing mother goddess. In this story, presented in both Irish and English, you’ll meet Brigid, Danu, and the midwife, the bean ghlúine who held the portal of life and death and helped bring new babes into the world.
OUR GUEST
Sarah Richardson is the author of WOMAN: A Guide to Living Your Best Life by Setting Yourself Free and Coming Home to Your True Self. A midwife of conscious conception, birth, death & rebirth. A woman of the medicine way. Sarah brings over 15 years of experience in the medical field as a registered midwife and the mysteries, which is steeped in her lineage. Her work is a safe welcoming hand — and a cheeky wink — across the veil, guiding others into deeper connection with the unseen and the ancestors. She serves as a living portal into the otherworld, inviting others to remember, reclaim, reconnect and rejoice in the fullness of their authentic selves. Her soul’s devotion is to the Goddess in all her forms — restoring our connection to our sacred source so we can receive the radiant, embodied BIG life that is our birthright. She is the Founder of the Womb & Word Collective and the Co-Founder of Dream Midwifery.
Subscribe to Sarah's Substack, The Womb & Word Collective and her collaboration with Jen Murphy, Dream Midwifery
Find her on Instagram @sarahrichardsonauthor.ie and at www.sarahrichardson.ie
IN THIS EPISODE
- The significance of Brigid’s Day and the season of Imbolc
- Sarah’s description of the Four Faces of the Ancient Irish Grandmothers:
- Bean Ghlúine, The Midwife; Bean Chaointe,The Keener; Bean Feasa,The Seer; Bean Leighis,The Medicine Woman
- Sarah’s own first experiences as a midwife and how this story is told in memory of a pair of twins, one born alive and one stillborn
- Our craving for a wise woman mentor, and the bean ghlúine is that being for Sarah
- What it’s like to be comfortable in the shadows, the Cailleach, and Samhain and what it’s like to embrace the joy and light that come with Brigid
- Ancestral stories and how they cause us to both fear and reclaim aspects of ourselves
- Saint Brigid of the Flaming Harrow who helped her Mary when she was “churched” after the birth of Jesus (hear the story in S6 Ep42)
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Take Marisa's Brigid class at Celtic Junction!
Marisa will be teaching a three-session online class for Celtic Junction, starting January 28.
Register for Brigid & Expressions of the Irish Divine Feminine
Our Story
As the season of Imbolc draws closer, an episode from the KnotWork archives. Kate Chadbourne offers us two tales of Brigit, Ireland's patron goddess and saint. The first describes Brigit as the Blessed Virgin Mary's best friend and the first celebration of Saint Brigit's Day. The second is a story of resourcefulness and kindness: when Brigit saves a fox and outfoxes a king.
Our Guest
Kate Chadbourne is a singer, harper, and storyteller, an award-winning songwriter and poet, and a scholar of Irish language and folklore with a PhD from Harvard. She's a beloved performer at venues throughout New England and founder of The Bardic Academy, a school for writers, musicians, singers, and young scholars. Kate recently released her novel The Poet on the Train.
Learn more about Kate as a performer, teacher, editor, and guide at The Bardic Academy and her vibrant YouTube channel.
In This Episode:
- Fite fuaite—an Irish phrase that speaks to the weaving together of ideas
- The meanings of Brigit's names: "Flaming arrow" and "life force, vitality"
- Prayer as co-conspiring with the universe: Brigit doesn't ask God to take care of everything, she asks for the eyes to see the solution and does her part
- "Conspiring" means "to be inspirited together"
- The power of the Celtic Wheel of the Year, which reminds us of our most treasured values and our connection to nature
- Imbolc: the feast of Ewe Lactation—a great excuse to have the finest butter, cheese, and ice cream!
Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine. Words Are Magic
Work With Marisa1. 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com 2. Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups 3. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Take Marisa's Brigid class at Celtic Junction!
Marisa will be teaching a three-session online class for Celtic Junction, starting January 28.
Register for Brigid & Expressions of the Irish Divine Feminine
In this episode:
As part of our Myth Workers and Culture Makers series, we sit down with Natalie O'Shea, founder and Executive Director of Celtic Junction Arts Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. We explore the Brigid's Cross as a living symbol and community touchstone.
This Imbolc-season conversation weaves together the power of place, the preservation of language and tradition, and the resonance between Irish and indigenous wisdom on Dakota land.
Our Guest
In addition to being founder and Executive Director of the Celtic Junction Arts Center of Minnesota, Natalie is an officer of Ireland Network Minnesota, and a member of National Irish Cultural Centers of North America (NICCoNA), representing her region nationally and internationally. She is an actor, speaker, and writer/ director of three annual productions with an international resume of theater work. Natalie’s honors include being named an Advisory Editor for University of St. Thomas’s New Hibernia Review and one of the Irish Echo’s “Arts & Culture Heroes” in 2020, as a “Rebuilder of Irish America” in 2021 and 2022, and honored as an Ambassador of Irish Culture in 2025. She toured the world for three and a half years with Riverdance, The Show where she met her Dubliner husband Cormac Ó Sé before moving to Ireland and, eventually, back to Minnesota.
Find out more about what's happening at celticjunction.org and on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and LinkedIn
Our Conversation:
- We recorded this session on January 7, the day Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. As a community organization, Celtic Junction is doing what they can to support the people of the Twin Cities in this difficult time.
- The Brigid's Cross as living symbol offering us the four directions, a sense perpetual movement, and the ritual of annual renewal
- Building Irish cultural community in Minnesota on Dakota land
- Language, place, and the intersection of Irish and Indigenous wisdom
- The divine feminine as goddess, saint, and living presence
- Keeping tradition alive without holding it too tightly
The old hymn to Brigid quoted at the start of the episode:
Gabhaim molta Bhríde,
Ionmhain le hÉirinn;
Ionmhain le gach tir í,
Molaimis go léir í.
I proclaim the praises of Brigid;
she is dear to Ireland;
she is dear to every country;
let us all join in her praises.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine. Words Are Magic
Work With Marisa1. 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com 2. Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups 3. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Write Your Book With Us In 2026The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2026
Registration is open now for our intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, novelists. and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”
Learn more and apply to join the Authors’ Knot.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine. Words Are Magic
OUR STORY
Ciarán of Saighir was born jus as Christianity was emerging in Ireland. This is the story of a woman’s vision, a long pilgrimage, and what happens when you keep company with a boar, a wolf, a badger, and a fox in a very inhospitable forest.
The story was recorded during a Myth Workers’ Salon, a gathering of Myth Is Medicine newsletter subscribers. If you’d like to join the next gathering and hear the story before it’s on the podcast, sing up or upgrade your current subscription at: https://mythismedicine.substack.com/
IN THIS EPISODE
- January 6 and all of its spiritual and traditional celebrations: Little Christmas, Epiphany , Nollaig Na mBan (“women’s Christmas” in the Irish)
- The human habit of trying to tame the wild and the trouble with anthropocentrism
- Connecting with the animal nature within and reconnecting to nature in a profound, elemental way
- What it means to be a liminal creature, to hold space for both worlds, for multiple traditions, like paganism and Catholicism
- Sources of this story: John Moriarty in Invoking Ireland, Martin Shaw in Jawbone, Ciaran Carson’s The Star Factory in which he quotes Patricia Lynch’s Knights of God
OUR STORY
Ciarán of Saighir was born jus as Christianity was emerging in Ireland. This is the story of a woman’s vision, a long pilgrimage, and what happens when you keep company with a boar, a wolf, a badger, and a fox in a very inhospitable forest.
The story was recorded during a Myth Workers’ Salon, a gathering of Myth Is Medicine newsletter subscribers. If you’d like to join the next gathering and hear the story before it’s on the podcast, sing up or upgrade your current subscription at: https://mythismedicine.substack.com/
IN THIS EPISODE
- January 6 and all of its spiritual and traditional celebrations: Little Christmas, Epiphany , Nollaig Na mBan (“women’s Christmas” in the Irish)
- What it means to tame the wild and the trouble with anthropocentrism
- Connecting with the animal nature within and reconnecting to nature in a profound, elemental way
- What it means to be a liminal creature, to hold space for both worlds, for multiple traditions, like paganism and Catholicism
- Sources of this story: John Moriarty in Invoking Ireland, Martin Shaw in Jawbone, the original manuscript at celt.ucc.ie, Ciaran Carson’s The Star Factory in which he quotes Patricia Lynch’s Knights of God.
Write Your Book With Us In 2026The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2026
Registration is open now for our intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, novelists. and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”
Learn more and apply to join the Authors’ Knot.
OUR STORY
It’s the winter solstice in the northern part of the globe. Christmas is just days away. This time of year is so steeped in story. Our culture is shaped by the nativity story in so many ways.
And yet, we’re shaped by the storyless mysteries too, like the 5000 year old passage tomb of Newgrange which was built to capture the rising sun on the Winter Solstice.
Sitting with these two late December phenomena, the story of Bethlehem and the alignment of Newgrange, I invite you to consider Omen Days and the 12 Rays of Solstice, two practices that can help you reflect and prepare for the new year.
IN THIS EPISODE
- The Christmas story describing the birth of Christ endures because it’s the foundation of a faith, but also because it contains the elements of a good story
- Calm Tóibín’s novella The Shortest Day, a fictional account of the modern discovery of the Newgrange solstice alignment by Professor Michael O’Kelly in 1967.
- Caitlín Matthew’s description of the medieval Omen Days practice, from December 26 - January 6.
- An alternative: start searching out twelve signs over twelve days starting on solstice, from December 21-January 1, as a way to gain insight into what each of the twelve months might offer.
JOIN US ON JANUARY 3
- Join us for the January 3 Reflect & Envision Retreat!
- It's open to all paid Myth Is Medicine subscribers. Subscribe or upgrade your subscription at https://mythismedicine.substack.com/
- During this this three-hour event (held noon - 3 PM ET via Zoom) we'll have the time and space to reflect on the year that was, root into the moment that is, and imagine the year that will be.
- We will weave the Omen Days practice into our time together.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa1. 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com 2. Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups 3. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Write Your Book With Us In 2026The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2026
Registration is open now for our intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, novelists. and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”
Learn more and apply to join the Authors’ Knot.
Our Story
In this original tale by Erica O’Reilly, we meet An Chailleach, the ancient grandmother spirit of Irish folklore. Though the Cailleach is often associated with fierce energy, she is also the gentlest of goddesses. In this story, she comes to the aid of a little boy who needs her help navigating his first Christmas without his mother.
Our Guest
Erica O’Reilly is an Irish-Canadian storyteller, spiritual counsellor, and ordained minister whose work is rooted in the transformative power of story. Supported by the ancestral Irish traditions of the Mná Feasa (Wise Women), the Mná Ghlùline (Soul Midwives), the Mná Leigheas (Medicine Women), and the Áes Dána (People of the Arts), she believes deeply in facilitating experiences where souls feel seen, heard, and held. She lives on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation
As the Creative Visionary of Into the Circle Theatre, Erica weaves Irish culture, folklore, and mythology into contemporary storytelling that honours feminine wisdom and ancestral memory.
Stay in touch with Erica by subscribing to her gorgeous newsletter and podcast, Into the Circle with Erica O’Reilly on Substack.
IN THIS EPISODE
- A conversation between two storytellers about heart, soul, and craft involved in the creative process
- How stories arrive as medicine for the teller, especially when navigating grief and the complexities Christmas without a beloved parent
- Erica's relationship with the Cailleach and how she offer "steady bones" through early grief—a grandmother spirit who offers both fierce presence and tender support
- The art of staying in relationship with stories across seasons and trusting they remain "in the wings" waiting for their moment to be told again
- How oral storytellers navigate multiple formats and platforms (live performance, Substack, podcast) to honor both the spirit of stories and the diverse ways listeners need to receive them
- The practice of repetition and re-telling as a way to honor a story's living essence rather than treating it as one-time “content”
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa1. 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com 2. Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups 3. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Write Your Book With Us In 2026The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2026
Registration is open now for our intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, novelists. and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”
Learn more and apply to join the Authors’ Knot.
OUR STORYAmanda Carmody shares three Christmas stories from her uncle, Irish philosopher John Moriarty. We follow a five year-old John to the barn on Christmas morning, meet a local Moyvane man who shows a sense of “alarming humanity” at Christmas mass, and walk with John and a five year-old Amanda to Granny’s house to light the Christmas candle in the window.
OUR GUEST
Amanda Carmody joins us to speak about her uncle and dear friend, John Moriarty. She knows firsthand how John Moriarty’s work can be a shelter, a companion, and a deep reservoir of meaning through the dark night of the soul.
Amanda spent meaningful time with John and later devoted many years to studying his wisdom teachings. Over the past six years, she has shared that work widely—through institutes, festivals, reading groups, workshops, blogs, and online classes. She has a background in visual display and design and is also an author and illustrator, an co-editor of John Moriarty: Grounded in Story.
She is the mother of three remarkable children: Damien, Sarah, and Anna. Being a mother and carer is Amanda’s first calling, and it is from this lived experience that she speaks.
Connect with Amanda and the vibrant John Moriarty Community on Facebook
IN THIS CONVERSATION The first story of John as a five year old appears in his autobiography Nostos* and serves as a foundational story that informs so many of his other teachings and stories * The power and presence of the lapwings, a species of birds that was once ubiquitous around Ireland is now profoundly endangered * Manchán Magan’s podcast series about John Moriarty, The Bog Shaman * The influences of indigenous North American stories on John’s work, particularly after his time in Western Canada. Resonances between John’s work and that of Robin Wall Kimmerer and her ideas around naming and how names transform relationships * John’s most important message: this spirit of ecumenicism. Written on his tombstone, "Mitakuye Oyasin" (the Lakota phrase, “we are all related”): nothing and no one is excluded from the sacred, not the animals in the barn, not the darkness, not our crooked humanity. * The nature of love, and how to love people beyond projections into loving people in their sacred otherness.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com * Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups * Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot:* www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Write Your Book With Us In 2026
The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2026
Registration is open now for our intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, novelists. and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”
OUR STORY
King Bran discovers the mystical silver branch. He loses it the very next day and sets sail to the otherworld to recover it. As with any otherworldly journey, this is so much more than just a boat trip!
OUR GUEST
Jenny Finn has designed structures that foster vitality in people, communities, and organizations for nearly 30 years. Her research, mentoring, and teaching invites people to deepen the relationship they have with themselves in order to serve the world with greater clarity and compassion. Jenny's work has taken many forms including non-profit leadership, trauma and hospice care, chaplaincy, clinical private practice, community building through the expressive arts, community and cultural design, and transformative education. Jenny holds a Ph.D. in Sustainability Education and is the co-founder of Springhouse–an intergenerational vitality-centered learning community in Southwest Virginia.
Join the Springhouse Online community at https://community.springhouse.org/
Find Springhouse on Instagram @SpringhouseCommunity and on Facebook
IN THIS EPISODE
- The meaning of "waking up" and following a call–even when it leads to irreversible change
- The influence of John Moriarty and his concept of “Silver Branch Perception”
- Jenny’s stories of transformation, recovery, and the importance of community support
- The founding and mission of Springhouse as a place to nurture the source of life in everyone
- The challenge of living in a culture focused on achievement rather than human development
- Reflections on education, tradition, and creating spaces for true growth and renewal
- The ongoing journey of remembering, supporting each other, and carrying the "silver branch" through life
- A "wayzgoose" is an annual printer's entertainment or outing, originally held to celebrate the start of working by candlelight and mark the end of summer.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Write Your Book With Us In 2026
The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2026
Registration is open now for our intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, novelists. and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”
OUR STORYIn this episode, we welcome back Elizabeth Cunningham, a beloved guest who joins us for the third time. Elizabeth shares the wild Elemental Grannies who appear in her latest novel Over the Edge of the World.
OUR GUEST
Widely known for The Maeve Chronicles, Elizabeth Cunningham is the author of six other novels, four collections of poems, and a memoir. She lives in the Valley of the Mahicantuck on land that was home to the Esopus Tribe of the Lenape.
Elizabeth’s latest novel is Over the Edge of the World and her new poetry collection is called Holding Our Brokenness. Find all of her books at https://elizabethcunninghamwrites.com/
IN THIS EPISODE
- Meet the Grannies–Sweep, Spark, Dirt, and Brine
- The power of fairytales to help us grapple with the biggest issues of modern life, particularly issues of power and environmental destruction
- Archetypal old women characters that have appeared across Elizabeth’s work especially in The Wild Mother and The Maeve Chronicles
- Elizabeth’s process of naming and conceiving of her characters
- A reading of “November Trees” a poem from her new collection, Holding Our Brokenness
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
When Rima Bonario invited me to be part of her Sovereignty Rising Summit, I was honored.
You’re invited to the Sovereignty Rising Summit, too! Join us Nov. 21-23. Register for this free online event now: https://www.thesevenqueendoms.net/sovereignty-rising-summit
Rima’s work has given me an opportunity to come back into renewed relationship with ideas that are always at the roots of everything I do at KnotWork.
OUR GUEST
Dr. Rima Bonario is an Author, Dream Weaver, and Soul-Coach with over 30 years of experience in spiritual and mystic exploration. She helps women reclaim their inner power, divine wisdom, and radiant presence through archetypal embodiment, ritual, and transformational programs.
As the author of The Seven Queendoms: A Soul-Map for Embodying Sacred Feminine Sovereignty, and the Founder of Bloom Temple Mystery School, Rima guides women into self-trust, soul-sourced prosperity, and embodied leadership.
Holding a doctorate in Transformational Psychology, Rima blends trauma-informed practices, energy work, and the Temple Art of Anointing to offer profound spiritual transformation.
Meet Rima, and more than three dozen other powerful advocates for the power of sovereignty at the Sovereignty Rising Summit: https://www.thesevenqueendoms.net/sovereignty-rising-summit
IN THIS EPISODE
- Marisa revisits the experience of writing and publishing The Sovereignty Knot, nearly six years later, including the shifts in our cultural interpretation of “sovereignty” due to the pandemic
- The Cailleach, a shapeshifting being older than the time and land itself, is likely the first of the Irish Sovereignty Goddesses
- The roots of Rima’s passion for sovereignty, including a childhood need to “up regulate” the adults in her life, which she sees a skill and an obligation of young women and the princess archetype
- Sovereignty counters both hyper-individualism and selfless service
- Reflections on sovereignty as individuals, and on the national level, particularly on colonized land in North America
- The concept of Rima’s seven sovereign queens, and their shadow aspects
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine. Words Are Magic
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine. Words Are Magic
S6 Ep 33
We continue to celebrate Samhain season on the podcast with a story of an Irish goddess and queen who was eventually known as a banshee and a witch.
Though we tend to celebrate the festival on the same day as Halloween, October 31, the ancestors would have celebrated this final harvest on the day that falls between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice. In 2025, that’s November 7.
In a year full of No Kings protests and with the election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City mayor, it’s the perfect time to embrace the women and the rabble who operate outside the halls of established power.
“Then, on the eve of Samhain precisely, Mongfind dies. So this is The Death of Mongfind the Banshee. Hence Samhain is called by the rabble, “Mongfind's Feast,” for she was a witch and had magical power while she was in flesh; wherefore women and the rabble make petitions to her on Samhain.” From "The Death of Crimthan Etc." in the Silva Gadelica, a collection of medieval Irish tales, translated by Standish O’Grady, 1892.
Mongfind, a sovereignty goddess and high queen of Tara, inspired Marisa to start KnotWork Storytelling, and her stories appeared in several past episodes:
- Ireland’s Forgotten Goddess-Queen-Witch (S4 Ep7)
- The Last Sovereignty Goddess (S4 Ep 8)
- Niall of the Nine Hostages, A Story by Mari Kennedy (S3 Ep14)
This story is really an invitation to imagine and do your own myth working. Who were “the women and the rabble” who would have remembered Mongfind after her death? Where would they have gathered? Who would have led the ceremony? What would their petitions have been?
Share your myth work reflections in the comments section of the latest post at Myth Is Medicine.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine. Words Are Magic
Samhain: the Celtic festival when the veil between the worlds is thin.
It's the last harvest of the old year, the start of the new, and a time of turning inward both to reckon with the shadow and to engage in deep, restorative rest.
We're marking the start of Samhain season with a conversation with Robert Mulhall as part of our Myth Workers and Culture Makers series.
May this episode offer you an invitation to have your own conversation with the Otherworld and engage with mythology, the land, and the power of ritual and ceremony.
OUR GUEST
Robert Mulhall has spent the last two decades in such diverse industries as public health, leadership development, education, finance, organizational consulting, and executive coaching. He is now the CEO of Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in the Berkshires.
Originally from County Wicklow, Robert holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce, accounting, and business management from the University College of Dublin. He is a certified public accountant in Ireland, and certified in mediation, executive coaching, the Enneagram, Reiki, and Celtic Irish Shamanism.
IN THIS EPISODE:
- Living mythology in modern times through relationship with the land and daily spiritual practice
- The power of uncertainty and mystery in Irish spiritual traditions
- The importance of humility in walking with spirit and indigenous wisdom
- Finding wholeness through reconnecting with ancestral roots and practices
- Navigating cultural identity and spiritual authenticity with an awareness of colonization and what it has stolen from both indigenous and white-identifying peoples
- The symbol and power of the triple spiral, the triskele
- “Don’t rush your winter.” How can you allow your own wintering, quietude, and need for rest and renewal - even if that instinct doesn’t match the current weather or your long to do list.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Last Call! Write with Us this September
The Writers’ Knot is welcoming new members! This is the global creative community where where the mythic imagination meets creative expression.
Registration is now open and due to the intimate nature of this community, space is extremely limited: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine. Words Are Magic
IN THIS EPISODE
What takes us even deeper than mythology? The direct relationship with the earth itself.
In this episode, I share a 20th century poem rather than an ancient story: Seamus Heaney’s "Digging."
- Finding the mythic, magical moments in the everyday, and in art that seems to describe “the mundane”
- The evolution of the name of my Substack newsletter to Myth is Medicine. Words are Magic.
- Reflections on sharing poetry with my daughter at the start of our first day of homeschooling
- The nature of work, whether that’s farm labor or sitting at the writing desk
- Listen to Mr. Heaney recite "Digging"
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Write with Us this September
The Writers’ Knot is welcoming new members! This is the global creative community where where the mythic imagination meets creative expression.
Registration is now open and due to the intimate nature of this community, space is extremely limited: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine
OUR STORY
King Bran leaves the feasting hall and is wrapped in the haunting song of a magical silver branch. This is the beginning of his immram, an oversea journey to the Otherworld. Along the way, he meets Manannán Mac Lir, the god of the sea, and they eventually reach Tir na mBan, the Island of Women.
IN THIS EPISODE
- This story of Bran throws the typical hero’s journey on its head as he cannot return home with the elixir because time works so differently in the otherworld
- Silver Branch Perception, a way of seeing the world described by the Irish mystic-philosopher-scholar John Moriarty (author of Dreamtime and Invoking Ireland)
- My experiences with the Bard Mythologies Summer School, which carries Moriarty’s work forward today
- Reflections on traveling to the ancestral homeland of Ireland, including the art of arriving there fully, the pain of leaving, and the unique challenges of returning home again
- What it means to be “fully in yourself” as you travel and as you move through your everyday life
- How my own life is changing on the other side of my own homecoming: homeschooling my younger daughter
Write with Us this September
The Writers’ Knot is welcoming new members! This is the global creative community where where the mythic imagination meets creative expression.
Registration is now open and due to the intimate nature of this community, space is extremely limited: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine
This week, a ‘best of the podcast episode’: Achtan: A Brave Mother’s Tale.
Our guest Karina Tynan, psychotherapist and Irish mythology author, tells a story of sovereignty, or spellwork, and of our deepest entanglement with nature. Bees, wolves, and horses play a magical role in the tale of Achtan and the lengths she went to protect her infant son, the future king, Cormac, son of Airt.
In the conversation that follows we explore:
✨Mothering and parenting - both in the ancient times we imagine and in this difficult contemporary moment
✨Our need for magic, and the way we know that magic when we meet it
✨The way Karina blends her imagination and personal experience into all her mythological retellings
✨Sacrifice (whose roots mean “to make sacred”) particularly, when it comes to parenthood
✨Achtan is a druid’s daughter, and Karina imagines the details of the five spells of protection are woven around Cormac Mac Airt in the literature
✨Our fear of our own children’s fragility, including fears of giving our kids an eating disorder or pushing them to suicide
✨The importance of coming of age rituals in indigenous cultures and the lost value of adventure.
✨The role of rhythmic stories, fairy tale, adventure, and romances in the development of children
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Write with Us this September
The Writers’ Knot is welcoming new members! This is the global creative community where where the mythic imagination meets creative expression.
Registration is now open and due to the intimate nature of this community, space is extremely limited: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine
Our Story
The sea has its own way of speaking - not in words, but tides, dreams, and memory. Not all who feel lost are meant to be found; some of us are simply remembering where we came from.
Erica O'Reilly's The Call of the Sea and a Lost Sealskin emerged when she returned to Ottawa, after two weeks at an artists' residency on the coast of Kerry. In this piece, she explores the layered, cascading grief of returning to a land that doesn’t feel of “home.”
This piece was first as part of her Substack series The Creative Process of De thír mo Mháithreacha: Of the Land of My Mothers. Be sure to subscribe to her amazing newsletter, Weavings of the Wise & Embodied.
Our Guest
As KnotWork’s 2025 resident storyteller, Erica’s heart-centered work is devoted to facilitating experiences where souls feel seen, held, and heard.
Through her Into the Circle Theatre project, Erica weaves together Irish culture, history, folklore, and mythology.
As an Irish-Canadian, Erica is profoundly grateful to the traditional spirits and keepers of the land—past, present, and future—of the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation where she was born and currently resides.
In this episode:
- Diasporic grief and what it is to feel at home in two worlds
- The selkie myth, that classic tale from Irish mythology of the seal woman who is torn between land and sea
- Creative residencies: making plans vs. letting go of expectations
- Storytelling is medicine and sharing stories out loud matters
- What it means to live between worlds and living the question: do you have to choose?
- Planting seeds in the water, hoping for future adventures and new stories together
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Write with Us this September
The Writers’ Knot is welcoming new members! This is the global creative community where where the mythic imagination meets creative expression.
Registration is now open and due to the intimate nature of this community, space is extremely limited: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine
You can also dive deeper into the stories behind the stories in this episode with the latest post about the immram tradition and what makes a good story.
In This Episode
In this solo episode, Marisa Goudy explores the art of truly “arriving” through the lens of her recent journey to Ireland, blending personal storytelling with Irish mythic tradition.
Inspired by the ancient immram tales—sea journeys to the otherworld—Marisa reflects on how travel, memory, and landscape shape our sense of self and belonging. Rather than a simple travelogue, the episode weaves together 17 moments of arrival at the Bard Mythologies Summer School on Clare Island, each representing a different facet of presence, transformation, and connection.
Along the way, Marisa draws parallels between her experiences and Irish mythology (including the story of the voyage of Máel Dúin), considers the role of motherhood, grief, and friendship, and invites listeners to reflect on their own journeys and moments of arrival.
Also in this episode:
- Fiona Doris who gave us “Bid, the Unbiddable” S6 Ep4
- Tracy Chipman who joined us in S6 Ep19, had me on her show, “A Year and a Day” in an episode called The Poetry of Mothering
- Erica O’Reilly, our storyteller in residence who will join us next week with her own story of visiting Ireland this July
- Connecting with past KnotWork guests at the Bard Mythologies Summer School including: Treacy O’Connor, Mari Kennedy, Karina Tynan, and the founderes of the Bard, Ellen O’Malley Dunlop, and Sandy Dunlop.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine
Write with Us this September
The Writers’ Knot is welcoming new members! This is the global creative community where where the mythic imagination meets creative expression.
Registration is now open and due to the intimate nature of this community, space is extremely limited: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
OUR STORY
As the traditional Irish myth goes, Tailtiu, the foster mother of Lugh of the Tuatha Dé Danann, clears vast fields so the people can plant their first crops. And then, she dies from exhaustion. The great festival of Lughnasa (on or around August 1) is held in her honor.
REFLECTIONS
- The power of retelling stories, both to honor the cyclical nature of time and to give ourselves the chance to see it with new eyes
- How we tend to flatten the stories and experiences of groups of "others" in preference for singular hero's tales
- What does this story say about work and overwork, and the way that we can get so caught up in what we convince ourselves must be done, regardless of the cost?
- Deep gratitude to the work of Bard Mythologies. Find the passage about the Fir Bolg, and more, at bardmythologies.com
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine
Write with Marisa this September
The Writers’ Knot is welcoming new members! This is the global creative community where where the mythic imagination meets creative expression.
Registration is now open and due to the intimate nature of this community, space is extremely limited: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Our Story
Inanna, Goddess of the Upperworld, is at the core of a 6,000 year old myth from ancient Sumer. Upon the request of her sister Ereshkigal, Inanna pays a visit to the Underworld. As she passes through each of the seven gates, more of her symbols of power, intellect, and wealth are stripped away. Upon arrival, Inanna is sentenced to death by her sister Ereshkigal. As is the way of myth, death is intricately connected to rebirth. Through the intercession of her father, Enki, God of Wisdom and Light, Inanna is revived and ascends to the Upperworld, renewed and transformed. At least… those are the basics. Pearl’s retelling of the story is a deep dive into contemporary dreams and timeless truths about the emerging of the feminine and the merging with the masculine.
Our Guest
Pearl Gregor is an explorer and a seeker. She is a writer, dream coach, story teller, author of the three books in the series Dreams Along the Way, and an international public speaker. Pearl is a farmer, grandmother, a blogger, and a Crone of wisdom.
Join Pearl to explore the deep mysteries of dreams, psyche and soul. You can read her books, or join her in her latest passion, a Dream Readers’ Myth Circle.
Find Pearl at www.DreamsAlongTheWay.com and on Facebook and Instagram
Our Conversation
This story of Inanna is woven with seven years of dreams that came to Pearl at midlife. We explore:
- Pearl had never heard of Inanna when images from this myth came to her in dreams. The book Descent to the Goddess: A Way of Initiation for Women Sylvia Perera appeared as a guide and confirmation.
- We need both the light and the dark, the masculine and the feminine, though the patriarchal mindset has shaped our perspective of what the feminine should be
- The role of “strange women” in a woman’s dreamlife; the integration of the “strange” parts of the self and the movement into circles of women
- The process of “birthing a new world,” as described by Jean Shinoda Bolen in Moving Toward the Millionth Circle
- The power of “collective dreaming.”
- More of Pearl and Marisa in the conversation series, Dream, Sovereignty, and Wise Woman Ways
- As Pearl says, “Skip Descartes and what you learned in school, there is nothing logical about rebirthing an entire universe.”
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine
Write with Marisa this September
The Writers’ Knot is welcoming new members! This is the global creative community where where the mythic imagination meets creative expression.
Registration is now open and due to the intimate nature of this community, space is extremely limited: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
Our Story
An Irish sovereignty goddess whose origins lie with the mythical Tuatha Dé Danann, Áine is also a sun deity, a bean sidhe (woman of the Sí), and fairy queen.
In a story from the mythological period, Áine has an ill-fated meeting with the unjust king Aillil Ólomm, who strips the land bare and threatens the goddess. Later, Áine is also found in a 14th century tale of Gerald, Earl of Desmond, also known as “The Wizard Earl.” Finally, a story collected in 1938 by the Irish Folklore Commission about a wise woman named Áine with two daughters who refuse to follow their mother’s marital advice, each with disastrous results.
Our Guest
Jen Murphy is the founder of The Celtic Creatives. A Dubliner born and bred, her ever-unfolding apprenticeship to following her soul’s breadcrumbs has guided her work and academic studies in Medieval Irish and Celtic Studies, Sociocultural Anthropology, Creativity and Innovation, and Jungian Psychology with Art Therapy. She is also a qualified Feminine Embodiment Coach and Non-Linear Movement Teacher.
Find Jen at www.celticembodiment.com/ and on Instagram: @celticembodiment
Subscribe to her brilliant Substack, The Celtic Creatives: https://celticcreatives.substack.com/
Our Conversation
- The ancient Celtic Sovereignty myth: the divine marriage (the banais ríghi). When the Sovereignty goddess unites with the king, she expects fir flaithemon, the prince’s truth. A worthy ruler needs to be just, truthful, and discerning. Parallels to Sumerian tales of Inanna and her partners.
- The importance of reciprocity - between people and land, between sovereignty goddess and king
- The ways that religion and politics collude together and exploit the land
- Connections to Arthurian Grail legend and “The Elucidation,” a tale that describes the rape of the Well Maidens that leads to the closing of the wells and creation of the Wasteland.
- Hospitality as a key aspect of mythology and culture
- Ireland as a “goddess obsessed” island. And yet, with all of the divine feminine magic, all of the Mother Goddess worship, it was not a Utopia for women. There were ways in which the coming of the church offered a haven for women, and monasteries became places of learning.
- Jen’s personal story of what it meant to see all part of herself, integrate the energy of midsummer, the deepest energy of the grandmothers, a death of a part of the self, and rebirth and integration
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine
Write with Marisa this September
The Writers’ Knot is welcoming new members! This is the global creative community where where the mythic imagination meets creative expression.
Registration is now open and due to the intimate nature of this community, space is extremely limited: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
Our Story
At a ceilidh, a home-based gathering, in the Highlands of Scotland, a young man is asked to follow the custom of sharing a song or a story. He has nothing to share, so he is asked to contribute by drawing water from the well. While there, he sees a mysterious boat and climbs in and it takes him to a far shore. When he steps on the shore, he realizes everything has changed. Suddenly, he is a she, and our protagonist begins a new life on the other side of the loch…
Our Guest
Dr Michael Newton earned a Ph.D. in Celtic Studies from the University of Edinburgh in 1998 and was an Assistant Professor in the Celtic Studies department of St Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia 2008-2013. He has written a multitude of books and articles about Gaelic culture and history and is a leading authority on Scottish Gaelic heritage in North America. In 2018 he was recognized with the International award at the annual Scottish Gaelic awards in Glasgow, Scotland. The book that he co-edited with Wilson McLeod, An Ubhal as Àirde / The Highest Apple: An Anthology of Scottish Gaelic Literature, was awarded with the Best Gaelic Non-Fiction Book of 2020 by the Gaelic Books Council of Scotland. He established the Hidden Glen Folk School of Scottish Highland Heritage in 2019 to teach a range of topics to students online and is reaching a global audience including Scotland, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Find Michael on Substack with his newsletter The Virtual Gael. His scholarly articles are available at academia.edu
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine. Words Are Magic
IN THIS EPISODE
As part of our Myth Workers and Culture Makers series, the writer behind the On Culture Work Substack newsletter, Tad Hargrave offers stories and observations about how to feed and shape culture within community.
OUR GUEST
Tad Hargrave is a hippy who developed a knack for marketing (and then learned to be a hippy again). Since 2001, he has been weaving together strands of ethical marketing, Waldorf School education, a history in the performing arts, local culture making, anti-globalization activism, an interest in his ancestral, traditional cultures, community building and supporting local economies into his work helping people create profitable businesses that are ethically grown while restoring the beauty of the marketplace. You can learn more about Tad and his work at marketingforhippies.com.
He also writes on Culture Work on his Substack: https://tadhargrave.substack.com/
OUR CONVERSATION
- Tad’s working definition of culture work comes from Stephen Jenkinson and his Orphan Wisdom School and Kakisimow Iskwew, “culture is our set of original instructions about how to live on the land in a good way.”
- What can we do to feed the culture around us? How are we killing it?
- How ceremony can be part of life
- How to (and how not to) facilitate homecoming and farewell events within community
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Explore your own mythic landscape…
Join us for our summertime writers’ retreat on June 25th!
During a three hour online retreat, we’ll explore a series of imaginal landscapes that help to illuminate and reframe your own relationship to your creativity and to your voice. You can expect a guided journey, a lot of time to write, and chances to dive into conversation with other myth-minded participants.
This event is open to all paid Myth Is Medicine subscribers. To subscribe, or to upgrade your subscription, please visit: https://mythismedicine.substack.com/
IN THIS EPISODE
As part of our Myth Workers & Culture Makers series, American musician Katy Hellman of Emerald Ground Water talks about how folklore and a connection to the Irish ancestors was so fundamental to the development of her latest album.
OUR GUEST
Katy Hellman is a songwriter, storyteller, astrologer, and community organizer based in Burlington, Vermont. She weaves worlds together through her art, one-on-one work, and community engagement. Drawing on mythology, ancestry, and folklore, Katy infuses her work with mythic wisdom—believing these stories offer vital guidance on what it means to be human.
Her latest project is the debut album from her band, Emerald Ground Water, titled The World Below. The album delves into the depths of inner experience, echoing with ancestral sounds and drawing on the archetypal power of fairy tales and myth. She blends these ancient sounds with more contemporary inspiration of psych rock, prog rock and freak folk.
Find the album on all major streaming platforms. Find the tour dates and the album's fabulous accompanying PDF booklet at https://www.emeraldgroundwatermusic.com/
OUR CONVERSATION
- Katy consciously sings from a shared well of sound with people from her ancestral and musical lineage
- Katy & Marisa met through the Bard Mythologies online Nine Waves Program
- Imbas forosnai - the Irish druidic practice of channeling “inspiration that illuminates”
- Seeing the scars of colonization and industrialization in the treeless Irish landscape
- Developing a relationship with a spiritual guide or “fairy hitchhiker” that might follow you home after visits to Ireland
- Inspired by Stephanie MacKay: grief is generative, while despair is not
- Feeling ancestral support and care through the creation of art
- The power of calling in Cailleach, so often associated with winter, in the midst of a summer solstice heatwave. As we say on KnotWork, every season is Cailleach season! (Including the recent story from the Outer Hebrides told by Tracy Chipman.)
- The Cailleach gives you permission to feel ugly and rageful
- Dee Mulrooney speaks about the power of the diaspora to support the culture and offer new perspective to the “mother culture”
- Katy has deep expertise in astrology, so the stars and planets ground this conversation too!
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Explore your own mythic landscape…
Join us for our summertime writers’ retreat on June 25th!
During a three hour online retreat, we’ll explore a series of imaginal landscapes that help to illuminate and reframe your own relationship to your creativity and to your voice. You can expect a guided journey, a lot of time to write, and chances to dive into conversation with other myth-minded participants.
This event is open to all paid Myth Is Medicine subscribers. To subscribe, or to upgrade your subscription, please visit: https://mythismedicine.substack.com/
IN THIS EPISODE
Marisa revisits the story of Cessair, the first person to set foot on Irish soil. This time, the story is told from the perspective of the ocean that carries Cessair from her homeland in the ancient Sudanese city of Meroë, all the way to Ireland.
- Find the full story of Cessair in When Tides Rise, Build Your Own Boat, S5 Ep19
- The latest Bard Mythologies program, an exploration of creation myths tracing the route that Cessair might have taken across the ancient world.
- The original story is told in the Leabhar Gabhála Éireann, the Book of Invasions
- Marisa’s new project explore the concept of erosion, both in terms of culture and the earth.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
With your paid subscription, you'll be invited to our next mythically inspired online writing retreat on June 25!
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine
OUR STORY
This tale from the Outer Hebrides weaves together an unjust king, a sovereign maiden, and the Cailleach. It originates in a certain place on Isle of Harris, but spans many landscapes from Lochlann (Norway) to Éire (Ireland).
Tracy Chipman received this story of the Cailleach Squire in the late 1990s from an islander from the village of Leverburgh named Norman MacLeod. It has never been published, and was given to Tracy in hopes that she’d preserve and share it as part of the Hebridean Folklore Project.
OUR GUEST
Tracy Chipman is a somatic healing artist, oral storyteller, creative writer, and a certified TRE® provider who weaves together ancient and new experiences designed to invite us into deeper connections with ourselves and the animate world. She resides in Washburn, Wisconsin, on the traditional territories of the Ojibwe peoples. In March 2023 Tracy published her first book, Borealis Mundi - Resting in Place, Loss & Grace.
Learn more about her work. www.tracychipman.net, IG @all.here.dwell.free, Substack: allheredwellfree.substack.com, and Patreon: www.patreon.com/c/tchipman_storyteller
OUR CONVERSATION
- Meeting the elemental powers of the land in an “un-storied” way rather imposing our expected stories upon them.
- The language and the access to the imaginal that has been lost in modernity
- The power of orality. We reference a recent article by Sophie Strand (a guest S2 Ep 3 and S4 Ep3) called Against Self Capture.
- The understanding of sovereignty and virginity as being related to being complete unto oneself
- The experience of telling stories in certain atmospheres and how different elements emerge.
- The sweetest sound in the world, according to Finn MacCool: “the music of what happens”
- What it’s like to tell Scottish stories on Turtle Island, being aware of appropriation and learning how to stay centered in yourself when called out. The messiness and difficult encounters when doing cultural work
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
With your paid subscription, you'll be invited to our next mythically inspired online writing retreat on June 25!
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine
OUR STORY
It’s Gemini Season. And Marisa, your host, is a quintessential Gemini. She tells the story of Castor and Pollux, the twins who are associated with the constellation.
IN THIS EPISODE
- WTF is Blindboy? He’s an Irish podcaster and author whose show explores everything from mythology to mental health to modern culture. Highly recommended!
- Chani Nicholas is a Canadian astrologer and writer, and the woman behind the CHANI app as well as several podcasts related to astrology, culture, and activism.
- Eleanora Amendolara is Marisa’s longtime teacher, and the founder of the Sacred Center School for the Healing Arts. She appears in S4 Ep9.
The passage from the end of the episode is from Stephen Jenkinson’s Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity & Soul.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
With your paid subscription, you'll be invited to our next mythically inspired online writing retreat on June 25!
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine
OUR STORY
A magical tree grows apples that assure the fertility of the community, but suddenly the fruit stops appearing each morning. The story, which comes from the Nart Sagas of the Ossetia region in the Caucasus Mountains, includes an initiatory journey, a marriage, and is ultimately about the union of the land and the sea.
OUR GUEST
Stephanie MacKay is the founder of Mythology Club and is co-founder and Director of Fianna Wilderness School. She specializes in ancestral knowledge, earth-based skills, ceremony and myth. Stephanie has a degree in literature, which has been enriched by over 15 years of transformative practice and study. She has delved deep into the realms of myth and initiation through trainings with Animas Valley Institute, Haven Institute, Wilderness Awareness School, and over a decade of study with Martín Prechtel. Her work is deeply informed by the time she spent in Alberta collaborating with Blackfoot and Métis elders as a part of the Rediscovery Initiative. She has held the role of senior guide and director at nature-based organizations across Western Canada.
Stephanie is dedicated to uncovering the vestiges of intact cultural origins within the body of old European mythologies. Drawing from the wellspring of these old mythologies, she seeks to uncover the hidden pathways that lead us to our cultural origins—reviving traditions long forgotten and holding space for the rehydration of ancestral wisdom.
Find her at www.stephaniemackay.ca and facebook.com/MythologyCultureRemembered
OUR CONVERSATION
- First questions to savor when you first receive a story: Where do you place yourself in this story? What image stands out for you? Can we meet the story from a place of soul?
- This story is connected to a Celtic story from the Isle of Skye, “The Cup of Healing.” The Narts are connected to the Celtic peoples through Indo-European migration.
- The contrast of working with myth for the purpose of psychological insight, compared to the more ancient, animist, land-based understandings of the stories
- The power of romance in the creation of the world. In this story, she is water goddess, he is a warrior of the land.
- John Colarusso, translator of the Nart Sagas
- Stephanie’s work with First Nations elders of the Haida, Blackfoot, Métis. Her need to look to her own ancestral origins to feed her own land based work on on the land of the Sneneymuxw, Gabriola Island.
- The discomfort and aliveness that comes with reckoning with the stories of the lands you live upon as a descendant of settlers
- We might read this story as the old “hero selects a woman” narrative, but it’s ultimately a story about the marriage of the land and the sea and the creation of the Nart people.
- This story is an initiation story for all, not just a singular hero’s tale. Everyone has a magnificence and a royalty of the soul (Martín Prechtel)/
- How to become receptive to story rather than a consumer or a decoder of story.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution (via Substack) helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
With your paid subscription, you'll be invited to our next mythically inspired online writing retreat on June 25!
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine
OUR STORY
Think you know the story of Little Red Riding Hood?Think again. Katrice Horsley offers a wholly original take on this classic tale. It’s a coming of age narrative that invites us all to come into relationship with the wildest parts of ourselves.
OUR GUEST
Katrice grew up in the slums of Birmingham. Whilst her family were poor in the pocket, they were rich in the mouth and this laid the foundation for her love of words and stories. In her early years she struggled to be understood due to a speech problem and this resulted in her becoming a selective mute - in fact she did not speak in school until she was about 8 years old and her teachers judged her to be 'educationally sub-normal.' She went on to become the UK's National Storytelling Laureate and an internationally known narrative consultant and performer. Katrice believes that this was not, 'in spite' of her childhood but because of it. She is passionate about the power of story in enabling people to know that their voice deserves to be heard and their story deserves to be told.
Website - www.narrative4change.com
Substack The Wildling's Path https://katrice.substack.com/
- This story was crafted as an homage to the late British writer Angela Carter
- Katrice’s key themes: duty, desire, and death.
- Inhabiting the liminal space between the feral and the acceptable, she questions what is allowed by the dominant narrative and explores what within the individual nature that needs an outlet.
- The myth of separation, at cultural and personal level
- The desire to make menstruation and what it means into something beautiful
- Biomimicry: “a practice that learns from and mimics the strategies used by living organisms to solve challenges comparable to the ones we face as individuals and societies.” Katrice recommends this interview with Janine Benyus on biomimicry.
- On Katrice’s TBR list: To Have Or to Hold by Sophie Pavelle
- Katrice’s newest project “Mythcilium” explores how myths work as the mycorrhizal networks that connect humanity
- Oral storytelling is action driven while written storytelling is character driven.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution (via Substack) helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
With your paid subscription, you'll be invited to our next mythically inspired online writing retreat on June 25!
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine
OUR STORY
As part of our Myth Workers and Culture Makers series, the artist Rónán Ó Raghallaigh takes us on a tour of the landscape and storyscape of his native County Kildare and neighboring County Wicklow. This area was home to Fionn mac Cumhaill (AKA Finn McCool) and his legendary band of warriors, the Fianna.
OUR GUEST
Rónán Ó Raghallaigh is an artist and researcher who received an MFA from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 2021. He has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions in Ireland and internationally.
Working through painting and performance, Rónán’s practice engages with pre-Christian Ireland as a means for contemporary postcolonial action. He visits sacred sites and researches their archaeology, history and folklore, providing a spring for new work. Paintings are made in the studio, while performances on site are filmed or live. He is re-learning the Irish language, and uses it during performances, for work-titles and in written texts interwoven with English and his vernacular dialect.
Rónán’s work is a constant act of remembering and cultivating alternative ways of being in response to colonialism, Christianity and industry. Storytelling and ritual become a practice for befriending our environment, considering identity and encouraging healing.
Find Rónán on Instagram: @ronan.o.raghallaigh and at ronanoraghallaigh.com
OUR CONVERSATION
- Rónán’s approaching to creative visionary art work includes accessing the consciousness through channeling and trance work. It’s a form of DIY spirituality and decolonization work.
- Logainmneacha: Irish placenames
- The power of well-visited sacred sites where others are also engaging with spiritual work, and also being with folks who are simply out enjoying a beautiful day
- The research and revival of imbas forosnai and other druidic practices to access inspiration
- The power of naming. In 1972 Brian O'Doherty staged a performance called Name Change, in which he changed his name to “Patrick Ireland” in protest of Bloody Sunday in Derry.
- The role of ritual, and Rónán’s performance art piece: Bealtaine Baptism
- Amergin’s Song with its proclamations of “I am” as a form of pre-Christian prayer.
- A recent performance art piece An Tobar agus an Chloch
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution (via Substack) helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
With your paid subscription, you'll be invited to our next mythically inspired online writing retreat on June 25!
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine
Our Story
What if the first day of summer arrived with the icy grip of the Ice Age? Join one man on his quest for truth as he seeks answers from Ireland’s animist wisdom keepers—encountering Eagle, Otter, and Salmon along the way.
Inspired by an account shared in Gearóid Ó Crualaoich’s The Book of the Cailleach: Stories of the Wise-Woman Healer, this story reimagines the tale of The Cailleach Bhéarrathach and the cold of May-Day Monday.
Our Guest
As KnotWork’s 2025 resident storyteller, Erica O’Reilly is devoted to facilitating experiences where souls feel seen, held, and heard. She believes deeply in wisdom of the human body and spirit; as well as the powerful medicine of storytelling.
Over the years, in coming home to the bones of her Irish ancestry, Erica has discovered that her dán [soul work] is interlaced within the sacred embrace of the Irish Mná Feasa (the Wise Women), the Mná Leighas (the Medicine Women), the Mná Chaointe (the Keening Women), and the Áes Dána (People of the Arts).
As the Creative Visionary of Into the Circle Theatre, Erica is dedicated to reverently honoring the tradition of the seanchaí in a modern context. Through the weaving of Irish culture, history, folklore, and mythology, Into the Circle Theatre shares the hallowed tales of women remembering and reclaiming the wisdom of their bodies and the magic of their spirits.
As an Irish-Canadian, Erica remains profoundly grateful to the traditional spirits and keepers of the land—past, present, and future—of the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation, where she was born and currently resides. Míle buíochas for the opportunity to live, create, share stories, and walk alongside you.
Find Erica: Weavings of the Wise & Embodied[Substack], Instagram or her website.
Subscribe now and mark your calendars for the Sunday after Bealtaine.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution (via Substack) helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
With your paid subscription, you'll be invited to our next members only Myth Workers' Salon on May 4 at 11 AM ET (via Zoom).
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
OUR STORY
On the eve of the festival of Bealtaine (Beltane), three sovereignty goddesses watch a fleet approach Ireland’s eastern shore. The new arrivals were the Sons of Mil, the first of the Gaels. Their coming would unseat the race of gods known as the Tuatha Dé Danann and change… everything. The goddesses knew this, and welcomed them in anyway.
This truly is a Bealtaine tale: according to the Irish Annals the Sons of Mil arrive in Ireland on the eve of the festival: Thursday, April 30 1699 BCE.
This story is inspired by the final wave of migration described in Ireland’s Book of Invasions. Brian Walsh told his version, The Coming of the Sons of Mil, on the podcast last year (S5 Ep3). Marisa’s retelling gives us the story from the women’s perspective.
This truly is a Bealtaine tale: according to the Irish Annals the Sons of Mil arrive in Ireland on the eve of the festival: Thursday, April 30 1699 BCE.
Want to dive deeper into this story? Join us for the next Myth Workers’ Salon via Zoom on May 4 at 11 AM ET.
This open conversation is for folks who support the podcast through paid subscriptions to the Myth is Medicine newsletter over on Substack.
Subscribe now and mark your calendars for the Sunday after Bealtaine.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution (via Substack) helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
With your paid subscription, you'll be invited to our next members only Myth Workers' Salon on May 4 at 11 AM ET (via Zoom).
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
OUR STORY
The tale of Etain and Midir is one of the great love stories of Irish mythology, and our guest Amanda Verdery brings it to the podcast just in time for Bealtaine, the springtime festival that celebrates new life and fertility.
OUR GUEST
Amanda Verdery is a writer, certified shamanic practitioner, and initiated medicine woman in her Celtic ancestral traditions. A second-generation Scottish American with Irish, English and French ancestry, most of her learning hails from the Scottish & Irish mythic and mystical paths. She is devoted to helping women in particular remember and embody their dán— their soul's gift and calling.
In 2022, she founded the Wild Becoming Sanctuary, a modern mystery school guiding deep & holy women of all kinds into communion with their power and capacity for self-healing. Join her in the Wild Becoming Sanctuary.
She also offers 1:1 guidance to those undergoing a holy rite of passage in their lives, in her Wild Becoming Immersion. All of her work is led by the Path of the Goddess and the circle-wisdom of the Wheel of the Year.
Find Amanda at www.wild-becoming.com, on Instagram @wild_becoming , and on her Substack newsletter Wild Becoming:
OUR CONVERSATION
- The power of initiation and choice, particularly in women’s lives right now
- The way we look to myth for psychological insights, but also seek to understand our connection to the more-than-human world.
- Seeking your soul’s true name, your dán
- The Claddagh ring, the hands, crown, and heart - friendship, loyalty, and love.
- At one point, Etain is turned into a puddle of water. What does this teach us about our romance with water and our own essence? Water as the ultimate model for shapeshifting.
- True love is a great threat to the patriarchy.
Want to keep exploring ideas like these? Join us for the next Myth Workers’ Salon via Zoom on May 4 at 11 AM ET.
This open conversation is for folks who support the podcast through paid subscriptions to the Myth is Medicine newsletter over on Substack.
Subscribe now and mark your calendars for the Sunday after Bealtaine.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution (via Substack) helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
With your paid subscription, you'll be invited to our next members only Myth Workers' Salon happening on Zoom on May 4 at 11 AM ET.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
OUR STORY
This is the story of Macha, a goddess, a fairy woman, a woman of the Sidhe, who took a human lover for a year. This story, and Macha's race against the king's horses, sets the stage for the greatest epic in Irish mythology, the Táin Bó Cúailnge.
Marisa returns to this story which she originally shared in 2022 and looks at it through the lens of a “post Roe world,” in which the right to abortion and reproductive freedom is no longer part of life for all Americans.
She explores the many ways in which we also live in a post-privacy world, and how this influences everything from romantic to parent-child relationships.
Want to keep exploring ideas like these? Join us for the next Myth Workers’ Salon via Zoom on May 4 at 11 AM ET.
This open conversation is for folks who support the podcast through paid subscriptions to the Myth is Medicine newsletter over on Substack.
Subscribe now and mark your calendars for the Sunday after Bealtaine.
https://mythismedicine.substack.com/
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution (via Substack) helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
With your paid subscription, you'll be invited to our next members only Myth Workers' Salon.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
OUR STORY
The old myth is well known: King Lir’s four children are turned into swans by their jealous stepmother Aoife. This retelling brings us deep into the motivations and nuances of an old Indo-European story that came to Ireland with the Normans in the 12th century.
OUR GUEST
Ellen is currently a member of the Council of Europe's Expert Group on Violence Against Women. She is a qualified psychotherapist and group analyst. She was CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre from 2006-2016. She gained a wealth of experience in lobbying government, designing and commissioning research studies and overseeing and publicly presenting national awareness campaigns about sexual violence, including the highly successful #AskConsent campaign.
Her interest in Mythology grew out of her work as a Jungian Psychotherapist, especially her dream analysis work with clients.
For 30 years she and her husband Sandy Dunlop (S5 Ep6) have organized and run the Bard Summer School on Clare Island Co. Mayo where with the group of participants, they explore the contemporary relevance of one of the wonderful Irish Myths. Ellen is also Guardian Chieftain of the O'Malley Clan.
Find out more about Ellen on Instagram @bardmythologies and https://bardmythologies.com/
OUR CONVERSATION
- Folks tend to recall this story as being lovely - "oh, the swans!" - but it’s really about abuse of power, abuse of children, and abuse of women
- Ellen’s translation work with Dáithí Ó hÓgáin, professor of Irish folklore at University College Dublin
- Transforming the archetype of the “evil stepmother” and looking at all the archetypes present in this story.
- Her work as a Jungian psychotherapist who worked with clients’ dreams, which often called on mythic figures
- The Children of Lir sculpture by Oisín Kelly in the Garden of Remembrance, created to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1916 rising in Parnell Square Garden
- The Magdalene Laundries, 1922 - 1996, where women were incarcerated for anything from perceived promiscuity to being considered a burden on their families or the State
- “There was no sex in Ireland until the Late Late Show”: the late night talk show hosted by Gay Byrne played a role in transforming Irish culture.
- The change within Ireland that came with Marriage Equality and Abortion Referendums.
- Ellen’s ancestor, the story of Grace O’Malley taught her that she could do whatever a man could do.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution (via Substack) helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
With your paid subscription, you'll be invited to our next members only Myth Workers' Salon.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
OUR STORY
The Irish goddess Boan has a sacred thirst for knowledge, and she is ready to claim her share. This classic story includes the sacred well with its salmon and hazelnuts, the good god Dadga and Aengus, the god of love, as well as the creation of the River Boyne and the Milky Way.
OUR GUEST
Ali Isaac lives in Ireland with her husband, two sons, and daughter, Carys. She graduated from Maynooth University as a (very) mature student in 2019 with a degree in English and History, with a Special Interest in Irish Cultural Heritage and followed this with a Master of Arts degree in English Literatures of Engagement.
BC (before children) Ali worked in retail management, with a short spell in the military. AD (after degrees) she worked as an education officer in her local county museum. But at heart, Ali is a writer. She has been blogging about Irish mythology since 2012, and now is the founder of H A G on Substack, a newsletter that braids female senescence with landscape - natural, archaeological, and mythical.
Her writing has been published in Irish literary journals, The Stinging Fly, Sonder, Paper Lanterns, and Catatonic Daughters. In 2020, she was awarded a mentorship with author Sara Baume by Words Ireland in conjunction with The Arts Council of Ireland. In 2021, she was the recipient of a Literature Bursary Award from The Arts Council of Ireland.
Her first book, Imperfect Bodies, will be published by Héloïse Press in March 2026.
Fing Ali: H A G on Substack and on Instagram
OUR CONVERSATION
- Ali has long been concerned with the way society seeks to control women, and she has a sense that “it’s all happening again,” particularly regarding the controversy over the removal of information about women’s contribution to STEM from the NASA website.
- At the same time, women are rising up and coming together, which is clear in the emergence of Brigid energy.
- The ravages of toxic masculinity and the craving for the beautiful care that is also part of the masculine. The power of Dagda’s love, and the way in which he was protective of women, holder of the cauldron
- Our past Bóinn stories by Laura Murphy Bóinn Re:membered and Brigid: Rebirth of the Mother
- A sense in Ireland that people want to move forward rather than look back. To many, the myths seem irrelevant, but that’s just further proof that we need to bring the stories back to the light.
- Boan is sometimes considered Ireland’s Eve because she reached for forbidden knowledge, but this story would have been told before Christianity came to Ireland. Her desire is older than that tree in Eden.
- The various elements that came together to inform Ali’s story of Boan including her thoughts about women’s power, as well as the willows and the waters of County Cavan.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution (via Substack) helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.
With your paid subscription, you'll be invited to our next members only Myth Workers' Salon.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
OUR STORY
This week, another episode in our Myth Workers & Culture Makers series featuring an invocation of the divine feminine energy within all of us. Saoirse Connolly offers a blend of Irish language, Irish goddesses, and universal wisdom in service to the ancestors.
OUR GUEST
Saoirse Connolly is founder and CEO of House of Wild Publishing and the Rebel Ma Rising movement. Saoirse is a two time international bestselling author and publisher, women’s empowerment mentor, international facilitator, voice activator and dream liberator for revolutionary women here to change the world through their soul-led missions.
Made in Dublin, Ireland she now lives in Bali, Indonesia with her twin flame Darragh and two kids Fiadh and Bodhi.
You can also work with her 1:1 in her Liberated Woman mentorship program or come play at her annual Her Wild Feminine Leadership Retreat in Bali this July 31st to August 4th 2025.
Applications are now open to contribute a chapter in the third edition of her bestselling anthology book and collective healing project Rebel Ma - Leading in the Time of the Feminine - Women's Stories of Revolution - publishing in July 2025 with divine feminine art by the legendary Irish artist Dee Mulrooney.
Instagram: @sessionswithsaoirse or @rebelmarising, Substack, and at rebelmarising.com
OUR CONVERSATION
- The way that goddesses associated with specific parts of the Irish landscape connect people from around the globe
- Saoirse’s own story of being born in Ireland, traveling to live in Australia and Bali, and how her travels have enabled her to come into relationship with her own culture in profound ways.
- Claiming our rites of passage as women. Her own journey through her days as a maiden, partying and caught up in corporate life, to becoming a mother and stepping into being of service in a new way.
- What happens when we remember we have thousands of ancestors rooting for us
- Following the yogic tradition, but seeking deities who were from her own lineage
- The powerful influence of Jen Murphy’s work (hear her most recent KnotWork episode Fite Fuaite)
- Áine Tyrell, an Irish singer songwriter who has devoted herself to the indigenous people of Austraila
- Mother wisdom needs to rise up within all of us, regardless of gender, regardless of whether one has birthed children. The need for care in all ways right now.
- Rebel Ma and Saoirse anthology projects exist to uplift all women, but especially marginalized voices
- “You don’t want to die with the dance still in you”
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution (via Substack) helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Get the stories behind each episode and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
OUR STORY
In time for the spring equinox, a story of the gods and goddess of Ireland, Tuatha De Danann and their land of eternal youth, Tír na nÓg. We meet the Cailleach who is marked by curiosity and a craving for change. For a time, she finds herself in a world where there is cold and death and grief.
Looking for a story of Saint Patrick on March 17? Check out S1 Ep8, The Unlikely Friendship of St Patrick and Oisín.
OUR GUEST
Nicole Marie is a ritual storyteller and facilitator in the United States and Europe. She learned the art of storytelling through her years in film and theatre and spending time on the mythic landscapes of Ireland and Norway. She was part of the ritual team of Lucid Dance in Berlin Germany where they curated ritual performances for the Wheel of the Year and led ceremonies for collective and personal transformations. Nicole is currently working at the Wilderness Awareness School where they teach nature connection to both youth and adults and she offers many rites of passage storytelling circles for the programs and community.
Check out Nicole’s Embodied Storytellers Podcast
OUR CONVERSATION
- The power of relating myth to our own individual journey.
- What it means to feel your own internal Samhain (autumn/winter) even when the rest of the world might be wrapped in spring or summer. Nicole’s story of being in Ireland for the first Brigid’s holiday, surrounded by fiery, vivacious women, but she was in a different place, physically and energetically.
- Storytellers get their inspiration from everywhere - the land, personal story, the season of the year, academic sources, translations of the manuscripts, and contemporary creative work. Nicole’s story was inspired by Ellen Ryan’s Girls Who Slay Monsters Daring Tales of Ireland's Forgotten Goddesses
- The complicated figure that is Patrick - he outlawed imbas forosnai, the druidic practice of connecting with the “inspiration that illuminates” and, he also gave us the beautiful nature poem, “The Deer’s Cry” (also known as St Patrick’s Breastplate)
- Looking at masculine myths that need to be healed.
- The yearning to belong, and seeking cultural identity as a white American.
- Martin Shaw episode of Jawbone, HOW A STORYTELLER’S MADE: The Salmon, The Crocodile & The Selkie
- Sophie Strand’s new book, The Body Is a Doorway, a memoir about her own chronic illness
- A closing ritual, and an invocation of the season, rooted in this story, calling on the elements of water and fire
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution (via Substack) helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Get the stories behind each episode and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
OUR STORY
Did Saint Patrick have a wife? Irish folklore of the 18th and 19th centuries declared he did. Sheelah was celebrated on March 18, the day after Saint Paddy's Day.
KnotWork host Marisa Goudy imagines a one-sided bedtime conversation between the couple. The story also weaves in two other women of the Celtic Otherworld - Cailleach and Sheela Na Gig.
We released this story last year to offer an alternative narrative for Saint Patrick’s Day. This year, we ask this story to speak to International Women’s Day.
In 2025, it feels as if we need to mark a day that focuses attention on the unique needs of women, girls, and femmes as much as we ever have.
And, that means that we also need symbols that inspire and empower us to claim and protect more than 50% of the population. We need to source our energy in divine feminine power - like that of the mysterious Sheela Na Gig.
Who is Sheela Na Gig? We don’t really know, but hundreds of sculptures of a figure with a skeletal head holding her vulva open wide were set into the walls of churches and castles. Some claim she was apotropaic (intended to ward off evil spirits). Others decided she was a fertility charm. Now we see a sacred symbol of the twinned nature of death and rebirth.
Special thanks to past guest Dee Mulrooney whose Instagram post “Free Síle” inspired me to return to this story. You’ll also hear a clip from future KnotWork episode with Ali Isaac.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution (via Substack) helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Get the stories behind each episode and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
OUR STORY
Saoirse has lost everything except for her dog, Bear. As they wander through The Burren of County Clare, a rainstorm hits and they seek shelter in the caves. Along their journey, they meet Macha, the Morrigan, Brigid, and the Cailleach.
Originally told at the Ottawa Fringe Festival in 2023, Erica’s story invites listeners to remember the wisdom of the body, the power of the voice, and the magic of the spirit.
OUR GUEST
Erica O’Reilly is KnotWork’s 2025 “Storyteller in Residence.” She’ll join us regularly with tales from her extensive repertoire.
A sacred storyteller, spiritual counsellor, Depth Hypnosis practitioner, and ordained minister (through the Sacred Stream Foundation; in Berkeley, California), Erica is dedicated to creating spaces where souls feel seen, held, and heard. She believes deeply in the wisdom of the human body and spirit; and the powerful medicine of storytelling.
Erica’s Into the Circle Theatre project honors the tradition of the seanchaí in a modern context. Through the inspirations and weaving of Irish culture, history, folklore, and mythology, Into the Circle Theatre shares hallowed tales of women, focusing on the reclamation of their embodied wisdom and sovereign power.
She also shares her creative voice regularly on her Substack, Weavings of the Wise & Embodied. Subscribe to her newsletter to follow her current work in progress, De thír mo mháithreacha: Of the Land of my Mothers.
OUR CONVERSATION
- A story about both safety and freedom. The heroine’s name, Saoirse, means freedom in Irish.
- The heroine's journey is one of reclamation and remembering.
- Seeing with what previous KnotWork guest Jen Murphy calls “the otherworldly eye”
- Allowing stories to work you over time before you tell it. Tad Hargrave, in his Substack, On Culture Making, talks about courting stories.
- An experience telling this story at the Ottawa Fringe Festival in 2023 that speaks to how interpret women’s rage in this culture.
- An exploration of the four goddesses who appear in this story: Macha, Morrigan, Brigid, and the Cailleach
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
OUR STORY
The story of a wild and wonderful girl named Bid, who was born of a long, powerful line of Brigids. Love, loss, and magic all woven together that becomes a song of Ireland itself.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution (via Substack) helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Get the stories behind each episode and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
OUR GUEST
A self-described lapsed botanist, Fiona Doris is a mythologist and a storyteller. She is a member of the Bard Mythologies team, acting as a storyteller and facilitator since 2020.
Find Fiona on BlueSky: @fionadoris.bsky.social
OUR CONVERSATION
- In these dark times, we’re looking for answers, but it’s all there in the stories. It’s just a matter of remembering and telling them, not just in Ireland, but across cultures. The answers are in the land, when we connect to our roots.
- Cré na Cille by Máirtín Ó Cadhain, translated as Graveyard Clay - a 1949 novel that captures conversation between a number of the newly dead
- Fiona’s story of discovering her father was a fluent Gaeilgeoir (Irish speaker)
- Botanist Diana Beresford-Kroeger’s work, To Speak for the Trees, the last to receive druidic training
- The beauty of orality, and the tricky dance with written culture.
- The grandmother in the story,Biddy O’Leary embodied three great expressions of Irish women’s culture and magic: bean feasa, the wise woman; bean ghlúine, the handy woman or midwife; and bean chaointe, the keener.
- Fiona’s dream: revive the tradition of collecting folklore, as they did with the 1930s Schools’ Collection, and gather stories from every generation
- People are storied. The stories have always been there, and we mine them. The work is to get out of the way of the story, acting as a midwife.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Learn about our global creative community, The Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Write with us!
Join the Authors’ Knot Program
Marisa is leading an intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”
There are just two seats left! Registration closes February 10, 2025. Learn more about the Authors’ Knot.
OUR STORY
Dee Mulrooney tells an original story based on her own mother’s childhood in Dublin in the late 1940s.
OUR GUEST
Based in Berlin, Dee Mulrooney weaves a rich tapestry of experiences, emotions, and insights into her creative practice. Rooted in the complexities of inhabiting a female body, her work emerges from the profound influences of her upbringing as a working-class Irish woman in the patriarchal, misogynistic landscape of 1970s Catholic Ireland. Her background profoundly shapes her identity and informs her artistic journey, where she fluidly navigates drawing, painting, writing, performing, filmmaking, and music.
Through her alter ego, Growler—a vibrant, full-body vulva costume—she channels the voices of women past, transforming pain into powerful storytelling and performance. A nod to her ancestors. Growler embodies the spirit of resilience, connecting generations and facilitating healing.
With over two decades of experience as an educator, Dee champions community and empowerment, drawing inspiration from celebrated artists and the potent power of women's narratives.
OUR CONVERSATION
- A story about childhood based on a true story that speaks to all of us.
- Dee is the granddaughter of two midwives who also served as “death doulas.” Dee’s own art continues to explore these themes.
- Homosexuality was illegal in Ireland until 1993, and it would have been notable and even dangerous for “Uncle Billy” to come home from London with his partner in the 1940s.
- The pressure to have so many children “for Ireland” in de Valera’s Ireland in the midst of so much abuse and secrets. At the same time, women were coping with Infant mortality and the spectre of the Mother and Baby homes.
- This culture was captured in Small Things Like These, the book by Claire Keegan and the film with Cillian Murphy.
- Ownership and belonging in the sacred sense rather than the materialist sense
- Beginning in the 1930, the Irish social welfare system guaranteed a home - security of tenure - for all people, which would have transformed people’s lives, particularly for working class women. This changed within a generation, and the current housing crisis in Ireland is the worst it has ever been. Dee’s family lost their home in Dublin and she and her family emigrated to Berlin where collective housing arrangements are part of the culture. Issues of housing are connected to ancestral trauma, particularly the famine and evictions.
- Accepting and working with the grief that’s part of the experience diaspora. Time seems to stand still after you leave a place and the diaspora plays a vital role in preserving culture.
- We recorded this conversation on Nollaig na mBán, “women’s Christmas” which Dee celebrated by making a drawing for her mother-in-law based on a 1913 photograph of a young Galway woman who put on traditional garb for the picture.
- Something Dee brings through with her Growler work: “No one on this planet can claim ‘clean ancestry.’” We’re here to stand on the shoulders of ancestors, including the murderers and the genocidal maniacs.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Write with us!
Join the Authors’ Knot Program
Marisa is leading an intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”
There are just two seats left! Registration closes February 10, 2025. Learn more about the Authors’ Knot.
THIS EPISODE
In this Myth Workers and Culture Makers episode, we begin with a song. Our guest, Amano, offers “Cuireadh Scéine (The Invitation of the Skane),” a song she wrote in response to a visit to the River Skane, a tributary of the River Boyne, in Co. Meath.
OUR GUEST
Amano is a songwriter, vocalist, poet, and performing artist from Killarney, Co. Kerry. She works bilingually in Irish and English to explore themes of changing identities, cultural fluidity, language(s) and animist ecologies across a range of genres including folk, pop, sean-nós, electronic and spoken word.
In summer 2024 Amano released THREAD, a collaborative Irish music project with Cork-producer Kalabanx. Songs from the record including HEART (featuring Liam Ó Maonlaí) have been played on BBC Radio Ulster, RTÉ Radio 1 and Raidió na Gaeltachta.
Amano has performed at festivals and venues across Ireland since returning to the music scene in 2023 including Electric Picnic, Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, and Brigid 1500 Festival. She is currently supported by the Arts Council in developing her practice in the sean-nós singing tradition.
Her next solo single, Burn, is set for release on February 19, 2025. Presave the song now.
Find her at: https://amanoanseo.com, and @amanoanseo on Instagram, Substack, and TikTok.
OUR CONVERSATION
- Amano’s journey, from academia and a future career in heritage museums, back to the music and language of childhood
- Blas: the Irish word for taste that also relates to your connection to the language and means something like “rooted sound”
- Questions about whether we need to be “pure” when it comes to how we use and blend language. What gets lost in standardization, and what gets lost when we try to be too precise?
- Sean nós or “old way” - a phrase first used in the 1940s to refer to particular types of Irish song and dance.
- The desire to name things that we revere as “ancient,” and knowing when it’s appropriate and not appropriate to use that term.
- “Complicated normalcy” is new in Ireland. As someone with Japanese and Irish heritage, Amano speaks to the experience of children who have origins and stories that don’t comply with the “typical” Irish experience.
- Amano’s experience of embodying the Cailleach in a series of street performances - the way the crone goddess calls us to embrace simplicity, and into relationship with plants, animals, the elements.
- Seeing Brigid as “task master and the goddess of fire.” Amano sees her as the perfect figure to look to when you’re worried about how your work will be perceived.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Write with us!
Join the Authors’ Knot Program
Marisa is leading an intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”
There are just two seats left! Registration closes February 10, 2025.
OUR JOURNEY
The season opens with an episode from our Myth Workers & Culture Makers series. Rather than telling a story of Brigid, Treacy O’Connor takes us on a meditative journey to feel the presence of Ireland’s mother goddess and matron saint.
OUR GUEST
Treacy O’Connor is an ordained OneSpirit Interfaith Minister, guardian of Ireland's ancient ancestral wisdom, Mindfulness and Meditation teacher & Co-Founder and CEO of Creating Wellness. Her mission is to inspire and empower a return to right relationship with the self, others, the planet and the cosmos – connecting the dots through the passage of the heart.
Treacy initiated a campaign to honour Brigid with a public holiday in Ireland which was inaugurated in 2023 and she was honoured by her local town with a Balbriggan Town Award, for illuminating the hearts and minds of the 24,000 residents with a Brigid Procession of Light in 2024.
Brigid continues to inspire and surprise Treacy with invitations to be an expression for connection with her qualities, in many different ways. One of those invitations is taking the form of a 6 day retreat. Restoring the Heart of Brigid, a magical pilgrimage and retreat to be held in Ireland May 31st to June 6th 2025, will be guided by Treacy O’Connor in collaboration with Carmela Fleury and LeeYen Anderson: https://www.leeyenanderson.com/heart-of-brigid
Follow Treacy on Substack, Instagram, or Facebook.
OUR CONVERSATION
- The emergence of Brigid into the popular consciousness over the last several years, and what it means to introduce her as not only an historical figure, but as a spiritual presence.
- Brigid’s Day, now a national holiday in Ireland, started with a petition in 2019 and was made a reality in 2023.
- Treacy’s story of being called to the very diverse town of Balbriggan, or Baile Brigín - the “Village Little Brigid” and what it was like to create a festival, including an intimate fire procession at Imbolc
- Brigid’s connection to both fire and water. These elements temper and bring one another into balance
- How Brigid’s energy emerges in everyone. A story of how Maud Gonne, Irish actor and revolutionary, exemplified Brigid energy.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Join One of Our Group Writing Programs in 2025!
The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2025
An intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”
The Writers’ Knot Community, January - June 2025
A creativity incubator for writers seeking camaraderie and connection. Mythic imagination meets creative expression in this long-running global writing community.
Our Story
The goddess Brigid is known to be a daughter of Dagda, “the Good God.” But who was her mother?
Laura Murphy tells her own story of Brigid’s birth at Newgrange. The child comes from the milky way, the way of her mother, the goddess Bóinn. (Laura offered us Bóinn’s story in Season 2, Episode 7.)
Our Guest
Laura is a poet, activist, and healer. She is a passionate campaigner for Ireland’s Mother and Baby home survivors and other issues surrounding equality, environmental and social healing including the recent successful campaign to make Brigid’s Day a national public holiday in Ireland (February 3, 2025!)
Watch the “Is Mise” Lightshow, Brigid’s Day in Kildare 2022.
Follow Laura on Instagram.
Our Conversation
- The first time Brigid is recognized with a national holiday February 1, 2023, a green comet crossed the skies
- Artists who are with us in the conversation, Caitlin Matthews and Dee Mulrooney. See the images on Myth Is Medicine.
- Power of the sacred twelve and thirteen, and yet Brigid’s sacred number is 19 (the sisters who held the sacred flame in Kildare).
- The significance of the cygnus constellation in this story and in Laura and Marisa’s stories
- Dagda: sacred masculine as midwife. Echoes of a KnotWork episode with Perdita Finn, who describes Joseph as midwife to Mary.
- Brigid and Mary in Celtic Christianity, which was close to the Essene tradition. Kate Chadbourne in Season 1, Episode 1, the story of Brigid as best friend to Mary, creating a diversion with the flaming harrow on the day that Mary was nervous about being “churched” after childbirth.
- Imbas forosnai, the energy of creation, as well as “the inspiration that illuminates” and the power of prophecy and speaking things into creation.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Join One of Our Group Writing Programs in 2025!
The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2025
An intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”
The Writers’ Knot Community, January - June 2025
A creativity incubator for writers seeking camaraderie and connection. Mythic imagination meets creative expression in this long-running global writing community.
Our Story
Ireland doesn’t have a creation story, but it does have Lebor Gabála Érenn, the Book of Invasions. The first "invasion" was led by Cessair, a granddaughter of Noah who took her own boat to Ireland to avoid that great Biblical flood.
Our Guest
Carmen Schreffler is a marketing consultant who works with purpose-driven entrepreneurs. She gives entrepreneurs the tools to cultivate rich and diverse ecosystems where they can thrive. She believes in connecting with your natural gifts—intuition, curiosity, and discernment—to guide the creation of a sustainable business that meets your needs and goals.
Join Carmen on Substack for inspiration on weaving the threads of your life and business into a thriving ecosystem: https://wildpreneur.substack.com/
Instagram @carmenschreffler
Our Conversation
- This conversation was recorded in March, 2023.
- What stories get told and passed on. What makes a myth “real”? Who are the “winners of culture”? Which parts of civilization, culture are we meant to rewrite and rewild? Rather than tearing down the master’s house, what if we are meant to build a new boat? Is technology, including artificial intelligence “the next flood”?
- What’s the source of this story? Scholars say it was conceived to further Ireland’s desire to establish Christianity and a Biblical pedigree, but the myth may have been rooted into something much older: an older goddess or memory of the floods that would have come with the end of the last ice age.
- The power of sharing your unique story and art and bringing it through your unique lens in this age of ChatGPT and AI, as entrepreneurs and creatives.
- The work of Mary Reynolds, a “recovering landscape designer,” and author of We Are the Ark. Her work of Acts of Restorative Kindness in order to live in relationship with the earth.
- Article in the New Yorker, The End of the English Major: liberal arts as a way into so many different ways of knowing.
- Carmen’s guiding principle, a quote from Yogi Amrit Desai: “We exist in perpetual creative response.” We remain open minded and open to the moment without judgment and move forward from that place.
- Marisa’s inventions: the reason Cessair and family were not included on the Ark and her meeting with the trinity of goddesses who gave Ireland its name: Éiru, Banba and Fódla.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Join One of Our Group Writing Programs in 2025!
The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2025
An intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”
The Writers’ Knot Community, January - June 2025
A creativity incubator for writers seeking camaraderie and connection. Mythic imagination meets creative expression in this long-running global writing community.
Our Story
Iona. This island in the Scottish Hebrides is only three miles long, but it's home to untold spiritual, cultural, and natural magic.
In this excerpt from the spiritual memoir, The Geography of the Soul, author Royce Fitts invites us to meet the wild divine feminine energies that are embodied on this sacred land.
Our Guest
Royce Fitts is a licensed marriage and family therapist and certified dream worker, with a doctorate in ministry.
His book The Geography of the Soul: Dreams, Reality and the Journey of a Lifetimeblends memoir, political and social consciousness, and spiritual wisdom and takes you to a hidden gem in the midst of the English countryside: the Ridgeway National Trail.
Royce is a long-time writing coaching client. I have had the immense pleasure and privilege of walking alongside him throughout the writing process.
Order Geography of the Soul from your favorite bookseller.
The audiobook edition is now available. Download it now.
Our Conversation
- This book grew out of Royce’s 2016 journey: a “conscious hike” on the Ridgeway National Trail, the oldest road in England and Europe.
- The role of dreams in our lives and the strange, evolutionary instinct to dream.
- Royce describes his relationship to the Crone of Iona and what he learned about his own masculinity while held by the sacred feminine.
- What is it like to embody masculine “god” energy in a healthy way? Royce invites us to have an intimate conversation with the feminine and masculine divinity within us.
- Royce’s lived paradox: he is a mystic, wizard, shaman in this world, but his work takes him to the heart of the US military where he is a military and family life counselor
- An invocation of vitality, and why it is so important to dream and to value our dreams.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Our Story
Marisa invites you to explore the lore of the Cailleach, the winter solstice at Newgrange, and the work of the Irish mystic philosopher John Moriarty. Plus: a new oracular practice to welcome 2025, the Twelve Rays of Solstice.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Get the stories behind each episode and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
A special invitation for writers & creatives: Join one of Marisa’s writing groups!
- The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2025
An intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”
- The Writers’ Knot Community, January - June 2025
A creativity incubator for writers seeking camaraderie and connection. Mythic imagination meets creative expression in this long-running global writing community.
In this episode:
- Visiting Loughcrew or Slieve na Calliagh in the midst of Storm Ashley
- Newgrange, and how the sun penetrates the inner chamber of the 5000 year old passage tomb
- Gearóid Ó Crualaoich’s Book of the Cailleach: He associates the Cailleach with “Conflict with and displacement by Christianity”
- John Moriarty’s Invoking Ireland
- Marisa’s new practice for the year, Twelve Rays of Solstice, is a twist on the more familiar Omen Days tradition. In the twelve days stretching from December 21 to January 1, you seek out a sign each day that foretells of the year to come. Dec. 21 corresponds to January, Dec 22 to Feb. all the way to Jan 1’s offering of what December of 2025 will bring
- Let's share this practice together. I'll be sharing my 12 Rays over on Instagram and in my Substack Notes
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Learn about our global creative community, The Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Get the stories behind each episode and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
OUR STORY
Rab Fulton brings us “a healing story” with its roots in 19th century Ireland. A stranger comes to northern Galway, and he doesn’t know how to be with the land or honor the stories and traditions of this new land. Thanks to a foolish choice, and a bit of magic, the man eventually becomes an integral part of the community.
OUR GUEST
Rab Fulton is a Galway-based Scottish/Irish storyteller, author, and educator. Along with with Kerry Graham, Rab is the host of The Celtic Tales Chronicles podcast.
His books include West of Ireland Folk Tales for Children and Galway Bay Folk Tales.
You can find Rab telling stories upstairs in the Crane Bar in Galway’s West End every Thursday evening. Get your tickets in advance - they often sell out!
Follow Rab on instagram @celtictalesgalway for details on upcoming events, including the storytelling project 'Growing With Stories' with Amelia Perez.
Find more about Rab on LinkedIn and at www.celtictalesgalway.com
OUR CONVERSATION
- Rab tells a 200 year old story that speaks to our 21st century questions: How we deal with our anger? What’s possible when we commit to resolving our conflicts? How do we welcome the stranger and how do we honor traditions when we come to new places?
- What the new immigrants to Ireland bring to this land and how we weave new people into the Irish narrative.
- The burdens of single definitions of what nationalities are - we contain multitudes. Neither Scottish nor Irish society have ever been homogeneous. Galway, a port city that was essentially an English city, was a very diverse city, and that diversity still carries on today.
- Rab’s many years of storytelling at the Crane Bar and some insight into being a working storyteller.
- Growing up in Glasgow in a working class family with a duality of language speaking Scots, a cousin of English sometimes called “bad English.” The only Scottish history Rab was told was about the land clearances, an act of ethnic cleansing, and it was framed as a good economic practice.
- Why do we tell stories? Never underestimate the power of sheer pleasure!
- It’s as important to be a story listener as it is to be a storyteller.
- Check out the KWS episode featuring another Scottish storyteller Katy Swift: Bride and the Cailleach, S3 Ep 10
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Learn about our global creative community, The Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Get the stories behind each episode and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
IN THIS EPISODE
In this episode, Irish songcarrier Sionnáin offers an ode to the Cailleach called “The Wise One.”
This is the second installment in our Myth Workers & Culture Makers series and includes a deep, powerful conversation about ancient tradition and living lore.
OUR GUEST
Sionnáin is a singer, songwriter & musician from the West of Ireland. Her path has guided her into gathering both traditional and channeled songs from the landscape of Éire.
She lives and breathes the sounds of the land, offering them up as prayers, woven with raw edges, soundscapes and the great depths of the ancient places that shape her journey.
Find her on IG at shannonsoulsounds. There, you'll find another gorgeous version of "The Wise One," including beautiful visusals.
Learn about Sionnáin’s upcoming program: The Descent:Dreaming with the Cailleach & Rising with Brigid
Contact her at shannonsoulsounds@gmail.com
OUR CONVERSATION
- The song, “The Wise One,” was born beside the fire at the Paps of Anu in County Kerry.
- The Cailleach is the wise old woman, the sacred hag, grandmother essence, and according to some traditions in Éire and Alba (Scotland), the goddess who created the land itself. Cailleach is rooted in contrast - she is strong and fierce, but also soft and nurturing.
- Caoineadh - the ancient Irish lament tradition (Anglicized as “keen”). The mná chaointe, keening women who would perform the ritual of grief at the wake. For more: visit Mary McLaughlin, a scholar and keeper of the wisdom of the tradition.
- The legacy of grief related to An tOcras Mór or An Gorta Mor, the famine or the Great Hunger.
- The conscious choice to open and receive the ancestors, the songs, the magic
- Tuam: the Galway town and site of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home from 1925-1961, where the remains of 796 babies were found in a disused septic tank.
- Ireland’s Samhain community traditions that were about sharing and visiting, rather than the commercialized version we have today.
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
WORK WITH MARISA
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Learn about our global creative community, The Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
OUR CONVERSATION
We express ourselves through mythic concepts and symbols, all the time, even when we don’t engage in traditional storytelling. This new series called Myth Workers & Culture Makers takes us into conversation with artists, leaders, and creatives of all kind who shape their work - and our world - through myth.
OUR GUEST
Aodh Ó Riagáin is an Irish creator of illustration, hand-drawn animation, comics and beyond, working with a foundation of traditional tools. Creatively known by the moniker Oreganillo., Aodh is working in the bardic and the druidic tradition of storytelling and myth-making.
Connect with Aodh: https://oreganillo.org/ and on Instagram @oreganilloartworks
In this episode:
- Aodh considers taking up the bardic tradition to be a lifelong quest
- Irish words that helped Aodh tap into the Irish mythic tradition (and receive the Silver Branch of Manannán): ceantar, which means place or locality, and alltar, which is its opposite - the otherworld.
- Aodh’s fascination with Queen Medb (Maeve), the subject of his graphic novel in progress. Goddesses like Medb and Mongfind can help us work with contemporary issues of power.
- Aodh’s short film, Candlebaths - a meditation on fire.
- Ursula K LeGuin’s essay Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction
- How shamans, druids, and witches would have been neurodivergent people who have a complex and vibrant internal world but are “maybe not so good in the material world.”
- Aodh’s five year plan: make a feature film that deals with Irish mythology
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Learn about our global creative community, The Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Marisa returns to the story of the Irish sovereignty goddess Mongfind, who has featured in several episodes. After some reflections on what it means to keep working this myth in a contemporary context, this episode includes a replay of Marisa’s 2023 story, The Last Sovereignty Goddess.
In this episode:
- For a more complete Mongfind story that sticks to the original source material, listen to S1 Ep2, Ireland's Forgotten Goddess-Queen-Witch
- The idea for KnotWork Storytelling emerged from a “conversation” with the goddess over an autumn equinox fire in 2021. Mongfind’s original message included the declaration: I am interrupted feminine power.
- Marisa reflects on power, and how not all females in power represent feminine power.
- Riane Eisler, systems scientist, futurist, and author of The Chalice and the Blade makes the distinction not between masculine and feminine approaches, but between domination and partnership systems.
- Kamala Harris’s promise to build the “most lethal fighting force in the world” is an example of the perpetuation of the domination system.
- As Eisler says in Advaya’s Reimagining Women and Power Course: “The opposite of patriarchy is not matriarchy; it’s partnership.”
- And, Marisa remembers a childhood classmate who died this week. Matthew Nelson engaged in self-immolation, the most profound act of civil disobedience to protest the ongoing genocide in Gaza. He set himself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Boston on September 11.
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- The Writers’ Knot opens to new members through September 9. Learn more and join the interest list: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Calling All Writers & Creatives: Join our global writing community!
Enrollment in the Writers’ Knot is now open: marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
Want to talk about whether the group is a good match? Let's set up a quick call.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
OUR STORY
This week, our story isn’t a retelling of an ancient myth or offering a new spin on an old bit of folklore. Instead, it’s a long, open ended response to this question:
Is it possible I'm hiding behind stories?
Host Marisa Goudy reflects on how stories have shaped her work and wrestles with this question.
Inspired by a powerful conversation with friend and colleague Carmen Schreffler, this episode explores the delicate balance between storytelling and the deeper meaning-making process.
Here's a writing prompt from a recent Writers’ Knot session that will help you explore what it means to “get unstoried’:
Most prompts in the Writers’ Knot include the phrase “tell the story of…”
Stories are necessary. Stories make us human. And, we may set limitations on our understanding of the more-than-human world when we impose story on everything we encounter.
Be with an unstoried place, creature, or experience. Dare to strip away the story and be with what is. Allow this to be both possible and impossible. Allow yourself to resort to metaphor and even tell the story of how you tried to write without imagining the story of it all.
Join the Writers’ Knot: The Writers’ Knot community is open to new members until September 9, 2024. If you’re a writer or creative looking for a supportive global community and these ideas resonate, this is the writing group for you. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
About Carmen Schreffler: Carmen is a previous podcast guest and member of the Writers’ Knot. Learn more about her approach to work and life on her Substack, Way of WildPreneur.
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- The Writers’ Knot opens to new members through September 9. Learn more and join the interest list: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
OUR STORY
The song about Molly Malone and her cockles and mussels is heard in Irish pubs around the world. But who was Molly, really? Erica O’Reilly imagines a tale of life and death, of real world work and otherworldly transformation.
OUR GUEST
As a sacred storyteller, spiritual counselor, and ordained minister (through the Sacred Stream Foundation in Berkeley, CA), Erica's work is rooted in creating spaces where souls feel seen, held, and heard.
Erica’s life-long love for the arts and collaboration in community has taken her all over the world, including: Ottawa, Toronto, Northern Ontario, New York, Italy, and Ireland.
Recently, her theater company, Into the Circle Theatre premiered its inaugural show (Stars, Stones, and Shadows: A Heroine’s Tale) at the 2023 Ottawa Fringe Festival to rave reviews.
Into the Circle Theatre is passionately rooted in reverently honoring the tradition of the seanchaí in a modern context. Through the inspirations and weaving of Irish culture, history, folklore, and mythology, the stories shared are hallowed tales of women re-membering and re-claiming their embodied wisdom and sovereign power.
Being of Irish and French ancestry, Erica is deeply grateful to the traditional spirits and land keepers of the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg People, where she was born and currently resides.
Find Erica at into-the-circle.com; on Substack, Weavings of the Wise & Embodied, and Instagram @wise.and.embodied
OUR CONVERSATION
- Erica’s experience of what it feels like to be what she calls a “sacred storyteller”
- The idea of being a hollow bone for a story or character (some quick research suggests this is a Lakota tradition)
- Molly’s death journey - death in the Irish tradition including wakes, funerals, and keening
- Mná is Irish for “women” Mná feasa (wise women), mná chaointe (keening women), mná gluine (midwives), mná leigheas (medicine women)
- The washer woman and the energy of the bean sí (banshee) - scholar Patricia Lysaght talks of the banshee appearing to inform the community that death is coming; Erica imagines her as a guide for souls
- The tradition that warns people to never eat or drink anything when you enter in the fairy realm
- Weaving story, voice, drum - Erica’s creative process and how it relies on a connection to the
- Fite fuaite - the Irish for “inextricably interwoven”
- Imbas foronsnai - inspiration that illuminates or poetic inspiration
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- The Writers’ Knot opens to new members on Lughnasadh, August 1. Learn more and join the interest list: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
OUR STORY
We find our way into the mythic imagination and Irish mythology through a selection of poems from award-winning poet, playwright and essayist Adam Wyeth.
OUR GUEST
Adam Wyeth is the critically acclaimed author of five books published with leading Irish publisher, Salmon Press. He is an Associate Artist of the Civic Theatre, Dublin. In 2019 he received The Kavanagh Fellowship Award.
Adam’s debut collection, Silent Music was Highly Commended by the Forward Poetry Prize. His second book, The Hidden World of Poetry: Unravelling Celtic Mythology in Contemporary Irish Poetry, (Foreword by Paula Meehan) contains poems from Ireland’s leading poets followed by essays that unpack and explore Celtic mythological references in each work. His poetry collection The Art of Dying was published in 2016, and was named as an Irish Times Book of the Year.
Adam’s plays have been performed across Ireland and in New York and Berlin. His play, This Is What Happened was published by Salmon in 2019. His latest book about:blank is an experimental hybrid piece, mixing poetry, prose and dramatic text. In 2020 Adam received the Arts Council Ireland Literature Project Award and was selected for The National Theatre of Ireland, The Abbey Theatre, to work on an audio production of about:blank.
Adam is a member of Poetry Ireland’s Writers in Schools Scheme and has over twenty years of experience facilitating Creative Writing Workshops. As well as teaching, Adam provides one-to-one mentoring sessions for writers, giving critical feedback on poems and whole manuscripts via his website adamwyeth.com.
Adam lives in Dublin where he works as a freelance writer. For more info on Adam’s work and books visit www.salmonpoetry.com
OUR CONVERSATION
- Joseph Campbell said, “myth is metaphor.” For Adam, a poem is like a mythology in miniature.
- The role of Jungian thought and depth psychology
- Adam’s story of moving to Ireland and discovering both poetry and mythology when he landed in the harbor town of Kinsale and learned from poet and scholar Desmond O’Grady the importance of “discipline, routine, and regularity” in a writing life.
- The Hidden World of Poetry was intended to introduce a “new mythmaking” for a non-Irish audience.
- How reading a poem is so different from the way we read anything else today. The breakthrough moment that comes through when we work with a poem over time.
- There’s no money in poetry, and so you can say anything you want. Poetry has power because it stands outside of the typical contemporary power structures.
- All great art comes from the mythic imagination. The power of active imagination and entering into conversation with a dream character.
- Adam’s working doc called “write rubbish speed writing”: it was intended to help him limber up before a writing session, but became an essential source of material for his writing, particularly about:blank - the doc that is mean to be about limbering up has become the most important thing
- Charles Taylor, Canadian philosopher.
- Dublin as character in about:blank. Taking inspiration from Ezra Pound, “make it new”
- Poetry that highlights the extraordinary nature of the internet and technology; internet like the unconscious. The human mind cannot bear too much reality, but the internet can
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- The Writers’ Knot opens to new members on Lughnasadh, August 1. Learn more and join the interest list: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Calling All Writers & Creatives
Join us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives: marisagoudy.com/lughnasa-writers-retreat
Join our global writing community!
Enrollment in the Writers’ Knot is now open: marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons.
And, your paid subscription gives you free access to the HARVEST retreat!
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
OUR STORY
As the traditional Irish myth goes, Tailtiu, the foster mother of Lugh of the Tuatha Dé Danann, clears vast fields so the people can plant their first crops. And then she dies from exhaustion. The great festival of Lughnasa (on or around August 1) is held in her honor. In this retelling, our host Marisa Goudy imagines why Tailtiu, a woman of the Fir Bolg, would sacrifice herself in this way.
REFLECTIONS
- The myth - and the reality - of the selfless mother. Is it possible to celebrate what motherhood is, but also decouple it from that expectation of self-sacrifice?
- The way the birth of the son leads to the initiation of the mother in myths around the world.
- The origins of the festival of Lughnasadh
- What conveys divinity? Tailtiu was a member of the mortal Fir Bolg, but it was her devotion and her action that rendered her the goddess we remember today.
- This story is often used as the origin of agriculture, which is near-universally seen as a good thing, but James C. Scott’s Against the Grain questions the “narrative of progress” - the creation of sedentary farming communities had a lot more to do with benefitting the state and concentrating power in the hands of the few than it did with offering people a reliable, nutritious food supply.
- This story invites us to question everything. What if Tailtiu had made a different choice? What if she brought a group of women to help her and had not died? What if she had bumped into Lugh on her way? What if she hadn’t replicated the Greek model and brought agriculture to Ireland?
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- The Writers’ Knot opens to new members on Lughnasadh, August 1. Learn more and join the interest list: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Calling All Writers & Creatives
Join us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives: marisagoudy.com/lughnasa-writers-retreat
Join our global writing community!
Enrollment in the Writers’ Knot is now open: marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Sophie and Wolfgang’s marriage was in trouble. Seeing as it was 1612 in Augsburg, they didn’t go to couple’s therapy, they went to a Jesuit priest who had a reputation for working miracles. What he had was a direct line of communication with Our Lady, the Undoer of Knots.
In this solo episode, Marisa talks about the experience of a story, and characters who will not reveal their secrets.
She also discusses how we manufacture our own “creative wastelands” and how they seem almost inevitable in a culture that demands that artists and writers continue to produce to claim and retain an audience.
As writers, as artists, as creative entrepreneurs, we often end up in the wasteland when we try to do it all alone, and that is why Marisa founded her online writing community in 2018.
The Writers’ Knot is a global community of storytellers, myth lovers, memoirists, novelists, poets, and bloggers.
The next program begins on August 1 with a three hour virtual retreat called HARVEST. During this event, the group will explore the mythology of the Irish goddess Tailtiu and Lughnasa, the first harvest of the Celtic year.
You can register to attend HARVEST: the Lughnasa Writers’ Retreat (August 1, 2 - 5 PM ET): https://www.marisagoudy.com/lughnasa-writers-retreat
Or, the event is free with your five month membership in the Writers’ Knot: https://www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- The Writers’ Knot opens to new members on Lughnasadh, August 1. Learn more and join the interest list: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
Calling All Writers & Creatives: Reweave Your Own Myths
Join us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives: marisagoudy.com/lughnasa-writers-retreat
Join our global writing community!
Enrollment in the Writers’ Knot is now open: marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
OUR STORY
The fairy woman Flidais and her cow Maol are mysterious characters from Irish mythology, but Regina de Búrca brings deep, flawed humanity to this Otherworldly being.
OUR GUEST
Regina de Búrca was raised in a bookshop in the West of Ireland, where her fascination with the Irish language and mythology began. In 2010, she graduated with an MA in Writing for Young People from Bath Spa University in England and has had various short stories published since then. She has been an editor of the online speculative fiction magazine 'The Future Fire' since 2009 and was shortlisted for the Minds Shine Bright short story competition for a story about a Sheela-na-Gig. In 2021, she produced the first Irish language version of the Rider Waite Tarot deck. Right now, she is working on the 'Journey through the Tarot via Irish Herstory' on Substack, a series of posts that connect historic Irish women to each of the 78 Rider-Waite Tarot cards.
Follow her on Instagram and Facebook
Regina is generously offering a special discount for podcast listeners. You can save 10% off Tarot decks and readings when you use code KNOTWORK at checkout. Visit theirishtarot.com for more.
OUR CONVERSATION
- A story of exile and curses that explores the consequences of following power rather than love.
- Regina is fascinated by how the gods become mortal, and vice versa.This fairy woman’s humanity shows so clearly (particularly when it comes to addiction and the need to escape pain.
- Maol the cow is the only being in the story who is described in detail - this is a storyteller’s technique to emphasize her importance
- A story with something terrible at the core of it - animal abuse - and how to hold it with sensitivity, and a happy ending
- Elen of the Ways, also known as Elen of the Woods, is sometimes conflated with Flidais. The ways in which modern interpretations can blend ancient goddesses, particularly those we do not know much about.
- The paradoxical distinctions between the human and the animal.
- Sheela Na Gig, the crone and the fertility talisman who appears at the very end of the story
- Sympathetic magic: when you touch something and then you’re imbued with its powers.
- The potency of the time of year and wheel of the year in the story. The power of the light at Litha, the summer solstice.
- The rising temperatures across the globe and role of the Sun in tarot - when is the Sun positive, and when does it burn?
- The Irish goddess Áine: listen back to Jen Murphy’s story in S. 2 Ep. 5
- Reclaiming the story of Pamela Colman Smith, the illustrator of the Rider-Waite tarot deck
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- The Writers’ Knot opens to new members on Lughnasadh, August 1. Learn more and join the interest list: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
Calling All Writers & Creative: Reweave Your Own Myths
Join us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives: marisagoudy.com/lughnasa-writers-retreat
Join our global writing community!
Enrollment in the Writers’ Knot is now open: marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
OUR STORY
According to the Book of Invasions, the closest thing Ireland has to a creation story, Cessair was the first person to set foot on Irish soil. She was also the granddaughter of Noah and, as Sandy Dunlop of Bard Mythologies tells it, she was also a woman of the world.
OUR GUEST
Sandy Dunlop has run Bard Mythologies with his wife Ellen for twenty-five years. He sees himself as a "cultural mythographer" with an understanding of the way cultural myths are used and abused by the powerful. He ran a consultancy specializing in helping global brands discover their archetypal and mythical roots.
On bardmythologies.com you can learn more about the Bard Summer School and you’ll find a rich collection of Irish Myths and Global Myths that take you deep into the time honored oral storytelling tradition.
Instagram and TikTok: @bard.mythologies
OUR CONVERSATION
- Not-chosenness can be seen as the story of the Irish people.
- As Marshall McLuhan says, as the fish knows absolutely nothing is water, humans know nothing about their own culture.
- Sandy challenges the “strong man” myth, and those like Trump and Jordan Peterson who use (and misuse) this myth to their advantage.
- The great Babylonian myth of the goddess Tiamat and her consort Apsu; the body of the great mother was dismembered by the strong man Marduk to create the world.
- The role of the autonomic nervous system (fight, flight, freeze, or fawn) in how characters respond in stories and in how we respond to the events in our lives.
- You can hear Marisa’s story of Cessair and Fintan Mac Bochra in S3 Ep 9, When Tides Rise, Build Your Own Boat
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- The Writers’ Knot opens to new members on Lughnasadh, August 1. Learn more and join the interest list: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
Calling All Writers & Creative: Reweave Your Own Myths
Join us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives: marisagoudy.com/lughnasa-writers-retreat
OUR STORY
Mannanán was the god of the sea. He was also a shapeshifter who interceded in the affairs of the humans who came to Ireland after his people, the great gods of the Tuatha Dé Dannan, were driven into the hills. In this story, Mannanán leads King Cormac mac Airt on a journey into the Otherworld.
OUR GUEST
Seán Pádraig O'Donoghue is an herbalist, poet, and teacher, and an initiated priest of the Feri and Crossroads traditions. He lives in western Maine and is the author of three books: The Silver Branch and the Otherworld (now available for pre-order), Courting the Wild Queen, and The Forest Reminds Us Who We Are. He also writes for Plant Healer Quarterly and for his own Seánfhocail newsletter on Substack. Seán offers weekly online classes through his Otherworld Well Hedge School.
Follow Seán on Instagram and Facebook.
OUR CONVERSATION
- Irish philosopher John Moriarty would say that to meet Mannanán is to become undone. To meet Mannanán is to learn that being human is a habit that can be broken.
- What it means to live poetry, like the bards who spend 18 years in study
- “Gardaí dúchas” is a term Seán coined for self-appointed guardians of the Irish tradition who insist that anyone whose understanding of gods or heroes or stories does not conform with the understandings gleaned from either medieval text or mid-twentieth century folklore
- How time works in the Celtic otherworld. The Celtic year and the Celtic day begin at darkness, just as everything begins in darkness.
- Ancestral work goes forward and backwards. We need to connect to the ancestors and we need to remember that we are also someone else’s ancestors. Generations from now, people will gather around bonfires telling the story of how we survived.
- The many meanings attached to Irish words, like Art which means bear, stone, power, and god
- Ireland and Palestine as nations that understand colonization.
- The Easter Rising took place near Bealtaine - we can think of the proclamations as a conjuring of another world as the events of that day led to including women in the new constitution and the restoration of the language. That process is still ongoing.
- The Celtic Twilight and its concept of identity was rooted in colonial ideas, but it was a necessary stage to pass through. We would not be having this conversation without that early 20th century cultural revival.
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- The Writers’ Knot opens to new members on Lughnasadh, August 1. Learn more and join the interest list: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
Calling All Writers & Creative: Reweave Your Own Myths
Join us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives: marisagoudy.com/lughnasa-writers-retreat
OUR STORY
Rather than a single story, Aisling Fraser brings us a series of poems rooted into the land, people, and mythology of Ireland. All of her work is an invocation of wild diversity that invites us to tune into nature’s voice and be carried back to the deepest part of the soul.
OUR GUEST
Aisling Fraser is the founder of Danu Wellness, a healing space designed to reconnect you with the truest version of yourself. She is a mother, therapist and imbas poet who works as a medium for an ancient Celtic Healing Process which is deeply rooted in the Heritage and History of Ireland.
Find Aisling at: www.danuwellnesscork.com, Instagram @DanuWellnessCork, and Substack @WordsFromAcrosstheVeil
OUR CONVERSATION
- Imbas forosnai: the Irish druidic practice which means something like “inspiration that illuminates.” Seers or poets would enter into the darkest caves into sensory deprivation and return with the words that would support the community.
- The Irish bardic tradition - putting that which is beyond words into words. Poetry is a way to communicate with the land. Words can be crafted in service to the entire community, not just for the individual.
- A new way to understand Sovereignty: it can only be established through connection with everything. It's a connection to my land, not in a sense of ownership, but in knowing we are of the earth and environment.
- The paradox of story: though there are so many reasons to celebrate it, when we cling to story as part of cultural and personal identity, story can become a limiting force.
- Recognizing the way humans transformed Ireland, from a great forested landscape to what is essentially a desert of green fields full of sheep. We can honor the importance of farming today, but also remember what was.
- Mary Reynolds, author of We Are the ARK: Returning Our Gardens to Their True Nature Through Acts of Restorative Kindness
- Honor the plantcestors - wisdom in the plants and nature that wants to present itself to us if we’re willing to stay long enough to listen
- The story of the Nordic people, the Vikings, is important to Aisling’s work and to the origins of the Irish people. She also feels a calling to the Blackwater River, sourced near the Paps of Anu at Sliabh Luachra, a sacred, ancient city of Shrone where the Tuath Dé Dannan were said to live.
- The shared lost ancestors: The Irish lost on the voyage to North America, are lost to Ireland and the diaspora.
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- The Writers’ Knot opens to new members on Lughnasadh, August 1. Learn more and join the interest list: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
Reweave Your Own Myths
Join us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives: marisagoudy.com/lughnasa-writers-retreat
OUR STORY
This tale of druidic magic and epic battle tells of how the Sons of Mil, the first of the Gaels, came to Ireland and divided the land with the race of the gods, the Tuatha Dé Dannan. At the the centers of Ireland’s spirit and power, Uisneach and Tara, you’ll meet the great poet Amergin, the three goddesses who gave Ireland its name, and the Good God Dagda.
OUR GUEST
Brian Walsh is a professional storyteller who specializes in Celtic Mythology and folk tales. He is also a clinician and educator in a hospital setting, where story listening is at the heart of his work.
Brian’s has told at diverse venues including the Toronto International Storytelling Festival, the Parliament of World Religions, Pubs, University settings, and around the campfire under the stars.
He lives and works in Toronto, Canada, on territory covered by the treaty 13 and the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant — an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy, the Ojibwe, and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes.
Find Brian’s upcoming gigs at brianwalsh.ca and on instagram @brianwalsh.ca.
OUR CONVERSATION
- What it means to tell stories of Ireland here as members of the Irish diaspora on Turtle Island: If gods only had resonance on one island, they would not be gods, they would be genus loci (protective spirits of a place).
- There is time and place for specific stories, and then there is telling according to what the moment requires.
- This is a Bealtaine story: according to the Irish Annals the Sons of Mil arrive in Ireland on the eve of festival: Thursday, April 30 1699 BCE
- Elements of fairy lore come from this story - the balance and reciprocity required for co-existing with the Good People.
- Role of memorized poetry of Amergin in Brian’s telling of the story. The rosc pattern in poetry is a sort of circular sacred repetition.
- Stories can be used to raise people up or to weaponize. This story could be heard as a tale about the right of conquest, or as a caution about the power of keeping the balance between peoples, between the human and the divine, between the people of the earth.
- Asking audiences to sit with you in the ambiguities of these stories. We can’t make the gods into moral figures by contemporary standards.
- The trope of the worthy opponent enables both sides to ask when the work of a battle has been done and when it is time for reconciliation.
- Brian’s personal story of coming to this tale and to Irish mythology: a search for roots beginning as a young teen that led to a sense of home. How the Canadian wilderness of northern Alberta the landscape of ancient Ireland in a way that the current Irish flora and fauna do not.
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- The Writers’ Knot opens to new members on Lughnasadh, August 1. Learn more and join the interest list: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Meet Achtan, a druid’s daughter and mother of a future king, Cormac, son of Airt. This is a story of sovereignty, of spellwork, and of our deepest entanglement with nature. Bees, wolves, and horses also play a magical role in this tale.
Our Guest
Karina Tynan is a psychotherapist and the author of two collections of Retellings from Irish Mythology: TÁIN : The Women’s Stories offers a new lens on great Irish epic, Táin Bó Cuailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley), and SÍDH : Stories from the Women in Irish Mythology, which are linked through the presence of the goddess in her many manifestations.
Karina's interest in Irish mythology began almost 30 years ago through the Bard Summer School which commences each July on Clare Island, Co Mayo, Ireland. Each year the summer school explores an Irish myth for its contemporary relevance.
You can purchase Karina’s books at bookshops across Ireland. International readers can buy them directly from the author: https://karinatynan.com/
Find Karina on Instagram @irishmythsretold
Both books are illustrated by Karina’s daughter, artist Kathy Tynan, kathytynan.net & @kathy.tynan. The books are designs by Karina’s niece, Ruby Henderson Insta: @ruby.hndrsn
Our Conversation
- Our need for magic, and the way we know that magic when we meet it: magic wakes you up.
- Ultimately, this is a powerful conversation both about growing and about parenting - both in the ancient times we imagine and in this difficult contemporary moment.
- Sacrifice (whose roots mean “to make sacred”) particularly, when it comes to parenthood
- The five spells of druidic protection are inspired by the original sources and Karina's imagination
- Irish myth’s tradition of the geis (pl. geasa): a cross between a curse and a taboo. Modern examples of geasa: the ethics of psychotherapy; the way humans - or, the richest humans - are transgressing the limits of our planet’s ability to support life with the addiction to fossil fuels
- Our fear of our own children’s fragility, including fears of giving our kids an eating disorder or pushing them to suicide
- The importance of fathering - both for partner and child
- The role of rhythmic stories, fairy tale, adventure, and romances in the development of children
- The role of ritual, particularly coming of age rituals which get people to wake up and be alive to what happens in life.
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- The Writers’ Knot opens to new members on Lughnasadh, August 1. Learn more and join the interest list: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our on our Substack newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Did Saint Patrick have a wife? Irish folklore of the 18th and 19th centuries declared he did. Sheelah was celebrated on March 18, the day after Saint Paddy's Day.
KnotWork host Marisa Goudy imagines a one-sided bedtime conversation between the couple. The story also weaves in two other women of the Celtic Otherworld - Cailleach and Sheela Na Gig.
Our Guest
Martha Wright is the perfect combination of maternal and bad-ass, she devotes herself to helping people embrace their inner divinity. She is a vessel and facilitator of divine energy - whether that is a healing session, her own writing, or leading a class or retreat. As you’ll hear in our conversation following the story, Martha has apprenticed as bean chaointe, the Irish tradition of keening and as a shaman.
Find her at marthawrightshaman.com or on instagram @Marthawrightshaman
Our Conversation
- Sheela Na Gig: a figure of a woman with a skeletal head holding her vulva open wide that was carved into medieval churches and castles, a representation of death and rebirth
- Approaching a story of Ireland’s patron saint with a kind of holy ambivalence - responding to the call to the ancient, often hidden divine feminine, and also the beauty and the scholarship of early Irish Christianity, but acknowledging that Catholicism became such a punishing, diminishing force in Irish culture.
- Reclaiming the tradition of divine coupleship as the full humanity of the people in the story. They are both spiritual beings and as sexual beings
- This story was inspired by the famous “Pillow Talk” scene from Ireland’s greatest mythological epic, The Táin.
- Intimacy, at the emotional and at the physical level.
- Marisa borrowed from Saint Patrick’s Breastplate, particularly its refrain “I bind unto myself this day”
- The tradition of celebrating Sheelah’s Day seemed to emerge in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly in the Irish diaspora, as a way to extend the Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations one more day (and to avoid the Lenten abstention for one more day)
- Martha as bean feasa (wise woman) and bean chaointe (keening woman), as shaman, as emerging author who has uncovered so many layers of her own identity in the process of telling the story that is truly hers to tell
- “Wildness” and what that really means in our modern world.
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Write With Us in 2024
Do you want to write your own memoir or simply make more space for self-expression in the new year? Join Marisa in the Writers' Knot, our online writing community.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. Find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons.
Subscribe to our on our Substack newsletter Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Perdita Finn shares an excerpt from Take Back the Magic. This chapter, "The Land of the Dead," describes her first encounter with the place that she and I both call home, the Hudson Valley, the land once peopled by the Lenape and Esopus tribes.
“We wouldn't fight wars if we knew that everyone on the other side had once been our child. We wouldn't kill children if we knew every child had once been our child, had once been our mother. There would be no sides.”
Our Guest
Perdita Finn is the co-founder, with her husband Clark Strand, of the feral fellowship The Way of the Rose, which inspired their book The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary. Find out more about her devotion to “ecology not theology” at wayoftherose.org
Perdita’s book Take Back the Magic: Conversations with the Unseen World is an intimate journey through her recovery of these lost ways. She speaks widely on how to collaborate with those on the other side, on the urgent necessity of a new romantic animism, and on the sobriety that emerges when we claim the long story of our souls.
Find more at her work at takebackthemagic.com
Our Conversation
- “Paperfold places”: real places that are dream places, places you feel you’ve seen before.
- Who are our ancestors? Everyone. This disrupts our ideas of ancestry and lineage and feels like a radical idea when we consider colonialism and we’re cautious about cultural appropriation.
- Civilization as a long story of genocide and colonialism that is based on stories of good guys and bad guys
- Cyclical living, and the sense we have all been here before.
- Cairns on the side of Woodstock’s Overlook mountain were placed about the same time as Newgrange in Ireland. Glenn Kreisberg and Dave Holden’s research about stone monuments created by indigenous people of the northeastern US.
- The heart, a sense of belonging to land, the ancestors, and the dead. So different from the fear and fascism that are so present today.
- Our interrelationship with the more-than-human world reflected in the destruction of the American chestnut trees.
- How to nourish the seeds of the heart; a practice for the new year at the Solstice.
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- Join the Writers' Knot online writing community - the new program begins mid-January!
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Write With Us in 2024
Do you want to write your own memoir or simply make more space for self-expression in the new year? Join Marisa in the Writers' Knot, our online writing community.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Elizabeth Cunningham reads to us from her new memoir, My Life as a Prayer. For Elizabeth, "A prayer is one who prays." This excerpt brings us to the start of her journey as a writer because, for this author, writing and prayer are always interwoven.
Our Guest
Elizabeth Cunningham is a novelist, poet, musician, and counselor based in New York’s Hudson Valley. She’ll be reading to us from her multifaith memoir, My Life as a Prayer. She is the author and illustrator of The Book of Madge, a graphic novel, and the source of her best known work, the four books in The Maeve Chronicles. Her earlier novels include The Wild Mother, The Return of the Goddess, and How to Spin Gold, all of which have been recently reprinted by Monkfish Book Publishing.
Our Conversation
- This excerpt from My Life as a Prayer isa request for help, and a prayer of gratitude
- Elizabeth chose to write through the lens of prayer because it enabled her to write a memoir without writing about certain things at the core of her life - love affairs, children, her marriage
- Scripture as sacred storytelling
- The pressure from Elizabeth’s father to be a social worker, not to be a writer; this tension is alive for many writers who fear they should be more devoted to activism
- Elizabeth’s “best imaginary friend forever” BIFF, Maeve, the unrepentant Celtic Magdalene, heroine of The Passion of Mary Magdalene and three other books
- The need for an incarnate goddess, and a desire for a relationship with Jesus
- The invitation to all people be in a uniquely passionate love affair with “God” (or whatever you call the great spirit)
- Prayer and the troublesome idea that “only god can help” when we think of suffering mothers and children in Gaza
- Fite fuaite, the Irish phrase for interwoven; the idea that something can be woven, then torn, then mended, as the Hebrew word tikkun
- “A way out of no way, way will open”
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- Join the Writers' Knot online writing community - the new program begins mid-January!
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Dimple Dhabalia reads to us from a later section of her forthcoming book, Tell Me My Story—Challenging the Narrative of Service Before Self. She shares a moment of deep realization: her life’s work as a humanitarian, and specifically her career as an asylum officer, was actually a direct response to her own family’s refugee history - she just didn’t know it when she started on that path.
You’ll hear a part of her uncle’s story and his expulsion from Uganda during the regime of Idi Amin, followed by a conversation about the power of story, in ancient myth, in personal narratives, and in the conflict zones of today.
Our Guest
Dimple is the founder of Roots in the Clouds, a boutique consulting firm specializing in using the power of story to heal individual and organizational trauma and moral injury. She is also a writer, podcaster, coach, and facilitator who brings over twenty years of public service experience working at the intersection of leadership, mindful awareness, and storytelling. Her first book, Tell Me My Story—Challenging the Narrative of Service Before Self will be available in February 2024. Listen to her podcast, What Would Ted Lasso Do? and connect with her on social media @dimpstory across all platforms.
Pre-order a copy of Tell Me My Story—Challenging the Narrative of Service Before Self
Our Conversation
- How intergenerational trauma and other unseen influences shape our lives.
- The role of storytelling in the workplace and how it helps heal individual trauma and company culture
- We connect story healer to story healer, the contrast of working with mythology and working with modern stories from the front lines. Story healing as “creating a ministry of presence.”
- The paradox of humanitarian work, specifically Dimple’s former work as an asylum officer; how to hold onto your humanity in the face of such profound human pain
- Ancestral healing is for us and for our entire family - Dimple is healing trauma for many generations of her family
- Story Healing for global conflict, including the Truth and Reconciliation Committees in South Africa and Dimple’s work with people after the Rwandan genocide of 1994
- Dehumanization as part of war and equating people with animals, which perpetuates the toxicity of placing the human experience above all other aspects of the more-than-human world
- The mythology of Hinduism (though it’s not myth to many); the indigenous stories told on the show Reservation Dogs
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Eleanora Amendolara shares an excerpt from her book Divine Embodiment: The Art & Practice of Chumpi Illumination. We discuss Eleanora’s many trips to Peru and the origins of her pioneering approach to healing and spiritual awakening.
Our Guest
Eleanora is a master healer and teacher with a thriving healing practice in Brooklyn and in Warwick, New York. As the founder of the Sacred Center Mystery School and a certified Health Kinesiology practitioner, she has been training healers and individuals on the path to spiritual awakening for more than three decades.
Her signature healing system, Chumpi Illumination, weaves together the indigenous wisdom of the Andes, principles of sacred geometry, the science of muscle testing, and wisdom of the ancient mystery traditions.
Get your copy of Divine Embodiment: The Art & Practice of Divine Embodiment.
Our Conversation
- How Eleanora received her first set of Chumpi stones: An origin story, which includes a woman’s quest, a wise guide, the great Incan myth of Pachacuti (“the world turned upside down), all aligned with the turning of the seasons.
- When Eleanora would ask the paqos, the medicine women of Cusco who could teach her about the Chumpi stones, they always told her to look to the mountains
- Our collaborative writing practice (I am a longtime student of the Sacred Center Mystery School, and have co-written two of Eleanora’s books).
- Connections across ancient cultures: Cusco as the sacred center of Peru, Uisneach as the sacred center of Ireland.
- Power of receiving and surrendering to a healing, rather expecting a healer to do something/produce something for you.
- Writing and creating from a place of “we don’t know what we don’t know.” When we can embrace uncertainty, the real mystical creation happens.
- What ritual with the indigenous Q’ero people really looks like (it’s not what the Western-programmed mind might expect)
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
In Ireland’s Forgotten Goddess Queen-Queen-Witch (S4 Ep7), you met Mongfind. She’s best known from her role in the story of Niall of the Nine Hostages.
In “The Last Sovereignty Goddess” I imagine Mongfind’s divine origins and tell a story about power, sacred union, and the disruption of the balance between spirit, nature, and so-called civilization. We explore the intersection between the divine and the human and the frailties that are at the core of this story of goddesses and kings.
Our Guest
Laura Murphy, @everose on Instagram, is a poet, activist and healer from Ireland whose work centers around the ancient
Irish poetic practice of Imbas Forosnai. She has shared a trinity of stories here on KnotWork, reweaving the tales of the Irish goddesses Bóinn, Brigid, and Danu.
This time, I have asked Laura, a true soul sister, to sit with me as I weave a new story.
Our Conversation
- A longtime theme in my work: how we tell goddess stories in order to tell our own human stories. While at University College Dublin, I published a paper in New Voices in Irish Criticism 4, “Dethroning the Goddess, Crowning the Woman: Eva Gore-Book and Lady Augusta Gregory’s Mythic Heroines”
- Channeling a story that is bigger than myself and also exactly the size of my own experience
- The power of choice and consent; the Irish tradition of the Sovereignty Goddess who chooses the king, and how that tradition was disrupted
- This story explores sacred sexual union, but also the terrible first kiss
- What it is to be in relationship with our younger self and younger body, without buying into the toxicity of “anti-aging”
- Some background on the connections between the Irish and Palestinian people, including the British Israelites and attempts to excavate the sacred Hill of Tara in a quest to find the Ark of Covenant in 1900
- The ongoing struggle with the word and concept of “Sovereignty,” particularly with the far right’s use of the term.
- Considering relationship to ancestral land through the lens of America, a country built on the disrupted sovereignty of indigenous peoples.
- This Last Sovereignty Goddess story is the tale of an ending, and this feels like a “Tower moment,” the liminal space between what’s dying and being born.
Join Melinda Laus's Seasons for Healing Community
My dear friend Melinda Laus holds space for a grief support community that blends the healing power of nature with wise and inspired grief education. Her wisdom and compassion are soul medicine, and I highly recommend her work to anyone experiencing collective grief or personal loss. Learn more at thenatureofgrief.com
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Meet Mongfind, the Sovereignty Goddess who appears in the Book of Lecan, a medieval Irish manuscript compiled at the turn of the fourteenth century. Her story is part of the better known tale of Niall of the Nine Hostages, the founding father of the O'Neill clan.
This story was written by Marisa Goudy. It is an adaptation from the translation of the original manuscript, inspired by the interpretation of the tale by Gearóid Ó Crualaoich in The Book of the Cailleach: Stories of the Wise-Woman Healer.
This story originally aired in February 2022. We’re sharing it again this week because Mongfind is closely associated with the festival of Samhain (often called the Irish holiday that inspired Halloween). Listen to this episode so you’re ready for another tale of Mongfind, The Last Sovereignty Goddess, coming next week!
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Fite Fuaite, the Irish for “interwoven.” Jen Murphy weaves a vast cloak of wisdom and culture. Less a story perhaps and more of an incantation and an invocation of the many faces of the divine feminine.
The lore of the Cailleach, the sacred hag known by many names including Old Woman of Beare, gives shape to Jen’s narrative. Over a dozen goddess beings, all representing facets of the Great Mother, in this story: Brigid, Sionann, Morríghan, Anahita, Bóinn, Kali, Badb, Inanna, Mis, Sophia, Baubo, and Sheela-Na-Gig.
Our Guest
Jen Murphy is the award-winning founder of the Celtic School of Embodiment. An anthropologist and mythologist by background, Jen is a cultural dreamer whose work is dedicated to evolving the Irish mythic feminine through scholarship, the body, and the arts, in service to these times.
I highly recommend Jen’s Celtic Woman's Voyage, now offered as a self-study program: www.celticembodiment.com/self-study/voyage
Our Conversation
- The best way to experience this story is to release the hold of the intellectual mind and let the heart be in the flow. Jen recommends you let the story move through the body and then respond through image, either by drawing or by actively seeking the images of the story throughout your life.
- This story is inspired by words from Sinéad O’Connor and Marion Woodman and inspired by work Jen did through the Anima Mundi School.
- A profound question to ask: What if I was created in the image of the Great Mother? Who would that give me permission to be?
- James Hillman: “Our dreams are prior to our thinking.”
- To thrive, we need an image of the feminine and the dance of metaphor, not just masculine, fact, and doctrine.
- The need to balance scholarship and research with the emotional response and the realities of cultural dreamtime. Now, scholarship and magic are completely separate, but that wasn’t so for the ancestors.
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and hear the supporter-only podcast between episodes on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Iona. This island in the Scottish Hebrides is only three miles long, but it's home to millennia of spiritual, cultural, and natural magic.
This story is an excerpt from the new spiritual memoir by Royce Fitts’s, The Geography of the Soul. Royce invites us to meet the wild divine feminine energies that are embodied on this sacred land.
Our Guest
Royce Fitts, is a licensed marriage and family therapist and certified dream worker, with a doctorate in ministry. His book The Geography of the Soul: Dreams, Reality and the Journey of a Lifetime blends memoir, political and social consciousness, and spiritual wisdom and takes you to a hidden gem in the midst of the English countryside: the Ridgeway National Trail.
This book explores relationships between physical and spiritual landscapes, personal and collective histories, and night-time dreams and how they weave together to reveal and heal the wounds of our lifetime.
Royce is a long-time writing coaching client. I have had the immense pleasure and privilege of walking alongside him throughout the writing process, all the way to now as he launches Geography of the Soul with Flint Hills Publishing.
Join us for the online launch event for Geography of the Soul on October 25, 2023. I’m excited to join Royce to talk about his author journey and how we collaborated through the drafting and editing process. Register here.
Our Conversation
- This book grew out of Royce’s 2016 journey: a “conscious hike” on the Ridgeway National Trail, the oldest road in England and Europe, which he took in response to a series of great life changes that needed him to change even more.
- The role of dreams in our lives and the strange, evolutionary instinct to dream.
- The divine feminine is at the heart of every story in this season of KnotWork Storytelling. Royce describes his relationship to the Crone of Iona and what he learned about his own masculinity while held by the sacred feminine.
- What is it like to embody masculine “god” energy in a healthy way? Royce invites us to have an intimate conversation with the feminine and masculine divinity within us.
- Royce’s lived paradox: Royce is a mystic, wizard, shaman in this world, but his work takes him to the heart of the US military where he is a military and family life counselor
- An invocation of vitality and why it is so important to dream and to value our dreams.
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Lilith was a goddess or a demon, depending on whose holy books or sacred folk tradition you follow. Pearl Gregor channels Lilith’s divine voice, decrying all the ways she has been misunderstood and offering us a renewed story of Lilith as the rising power of the long repressed feminine.
Our Guest
Pearl Gregor is an explorer and a seeker. She is a writer, dream coach, story teller, author of the three books in the series Dreams Along the Way, and an international public speaker. Pearl is a farmer, grandmother, a blogger and a Crone of wisdom.
Pearl experienced years of personal turmoil beginning about age nine. Nothing. But nothing, worked. Then at age 43, she discovered meditation and in December 1988 learned that she could askfor a dream. That first dream unleashed an avalanche of change. Like the Myth of the Goddess Inanna, Pearl lived the descent into the underworld. Like the Myth of the Goddess Lilith, Pearl has lived this process of life, death, and rebirth.
Join Pearl to explore the deep mysteries of dreams, psyche and soul. You can read her books, or join her in her latest passion, a Dream Readers’ Myth Circle. Find her at https://dreamsalongtheway.com/
Our Conversation
- Pearl’s visionary experience of the goddesses Lilith and Sophia during a reiki treatment
- The contrast of a profound spiritual opening of the divine feminine while at conference of educators whose systems had little respect for a feminine perspective
- Continuing the journey with a dream of the Eleusinian Mysteries, the ancient rites of Demeter and Persephone, which enabled Pearl to feel for the first time “I am pleased to be a woman”
- The 325 AD Council of Nicaea and Empire Constantine’s declarations establish one true church that declared the birth-death-rebirth story to be heretical
- Marisa’s journey with the Church and the decision to reject it, which seems a generational difference from Pearl who stayed connected to the church through the Roman Catholic WomenPriest movement.
- The initial rejection and slow acceptance of Marija Gimbutas’s work by some (See more at Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA)
- The work of Liliana Kleiner, a Argentinian-Canadian-Israeli artist who focuses on the work of Lilith and Inanna
- Books we discussed: Perdita Finn’s Take Back the Magic, Marion Woodman’s The Pregnant Virgin, Nancy Qualls-Corbett’s The Sacred Prostitute (foreword by Woodman).
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Sophie’s new novel, The Madonna Secret, offers a lush, ecological exploration of the gospel stories of Jesus and Mary Magdalene we may think we know so well. Rather than reading an excerpt or sharing a particular story, Sophie takes us into the landscape and culture of her heroine Miriam’s world.
Our Guest
Sophie Strand is a writer based in the Hudson Valley who focuses on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. She is the author of The Flowering Wand, The Madonna Secret, and forthcoming memoir on disability and ecology: The Body is a Doorway. Subscribe for her newsletter at sophiestrand.substack.com. And follow her work on Instagram: @cosmogyny and at www.sophiestrand.com.
Our Conversation
- How does a man who seems to be pro-women and deeply rooted in his own landscape become the mouthpiece for sexism, oppression, colonialism, and ecocide? How does the mistranslation of Jesus happen?
- A spiritual text is one that is a sensual text. The role of scents and herbs, especially spikenard.
- Understanding the Marian tradition as both Mother of God and Partner of God. Seeing the trinity as: The Mother, the Wife, and the Teacher.
- “There were lions in the old testament because there were lions in Palestine.” Shifting baseline syndrome means we’ve come to accept a desert-like Palestine. Empires committed genocide and ecocide and radically changed all aspects of the landscape in the last 2000 years.
- Written culture recorded by male elites; oral cultures make knowledge “a verb.” Miriam’s illiteracy is painful to her, but it’s core to who she is.
- Stories that were intended to be told in certain seasons. How do we transform the stories amidst climate and phenological change?
- Stories travel in bodies at the pace of a footstep.
More complete show notes will be available at the Myth Is Medicine Substack.
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, get special supporter-only podcast episodes, and stay connected between seasons on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Laura Murphy returns to KnotWork for the third time with a tale of the Irish goddess Danu that is part creation story and part initiation rite.
Our Guest
Laura Murphy is a poet, activist and healer from Ireland whose work centers around the ancient Irish poetic practice of Imbas Forosnai. The filí (seer-poets) of pre-Christian Ireland used this practice to bring healing to society and truth to power.
Laura’s Imbas-infused work has been featured in the Abbey Theatre’s critically acclaimed "HOME: Part One," Herstory Light Shows, TG4’s "Imeall" and RTÉ documentary "Finding Brigid."
Laura was the inaugural Poet in Residence at Herstory, the movement illuminating female role-models, she was a key player in the campaign to make Brigid’s Day a national holiday in Ireland. She is an advocate for Mother and Baby Home survivors.
Follow Laura on Instagram: @everose
Art for this episode, “Danu Rising” by Yuri Leitch of The Ogham Grove.
The Danu Chant at the end of Laura’s story is written by Jenny Ní Ruiséil; sung & recorded by Melanie Taylor.
Our Conversation
- Dánu gave her name to the people of the goddess Danu, the Tuatha De Dannan, the most celebrated divine beings, but she is mentioned only a couple of times in Irish mythology.
- Our relationship with gnosis and ‘the mystery”: our birthright is to hold the mystery, not to solve the mystery
- The role of the Grandmothers: in the story, across spiritual traditions, and in Irish society in recent generations
- The calling to be an elder in midlife
- What it means to follow your dán: an Irish word that simultaneously means gift, skill, art, poem, soul and destiny
- When the English language replaced the Irish we lost a poetic way of speaking and expressing that was closer to the mysteries
- The alignment of stars (the constellation Casseopia), sacred sites, and features of the land (Paps of Anu in Killarney); Laura is inspired about these connections thanks to ideas brought forth by Yuri Leitch.
More complete show notes will be available at the Myth Is Medicine Substack.
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and stay connected between seasons on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Join us in the Autumn Writers’ Knot!
Let the Guides, Gods, and Ancestors Lead Your Creative Journey - Register for the online writing program that begins on September 24!
This series of four retreats is storytellers and poets, memoirists and bloggers, novelists and seekers, dreamers and healers trying to find a project that matters.
Our Story
As we prepare for season 4, Marisa reflects on purpose and mission of KnotWork Storytelling.
In this episode:
- A preview of this season’s guests, including Laura Murphy and Sophie Strand
- Marisa's spiritual foundation: studies at the Sacred Center Mystery School
- A devotion to mythology that goes beyond costume drama
- An ancestor who refused to be called by “an Irish maid’s name” and what that says about the legacy of shame in the Irish diaspora
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- This season, Marisa will be taking on a handful of new writing coaching clients. If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, set up a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and stay connected between seasons on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Ceridwen of Wales was a powerful sorceress with a hand for potions and a ferocious amount of mother love. Her magical cauldron was blessed with “awen,” supernatural inspiration and knowledge. She gave birth to a beautiful daughter, and a woefully ugly son.
Ceridwen decided to whip up a potion to offer her son the gift of beauty and the gift of awen… except things didn’t go as planned!
This story of shapeshifting and rebirth gives us the twice-born hero who would become the great poet-prophet-sage Taliesin.
Also in this episode
This solo episode is sort of Mother’s Day celebration, and it gives us a chance to bring together all the stories and guests who have added their wisdom to the great cauldron this season.
- The archetypes of the cauldron and the alchemist and why they’re so important when we’re doing creative work.
- Mythology and folklore weren’t crafted for mere entertainment. Most often, they were conceived to explain moments of change and disruption.
- KnotWork Storytelling will be on hiatus until August or September, but stay tuned for a special announcement this summer! Hint: you’ll definitely want to listen in!
Join us in New York City!
- Be part of Bealtaine: Returning to our Senses | Beo Bríomhar Arís, curated by The Trailblazery’s Scoil Scairte/Hedge School and presented in partnership with the Irish Arts Center in New York City for this years’ Féile na Gaeilge/Irish Language Day on Saturday, May 13. Tickets available now.
Be Part of the Heroine's Knot Mythology & Writing Program
- “Who has a story, a reflection, a collection of words to add to the cauldron?” That’s the question I ask whenever I gather writers together in a group dedicated to exploring stories and expressing creativity.
- Are you interested in join the mythology and writing program, The Heroine’s Knot? Be sure to get on the list to find out when registration opens (fall 2023).
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." billyandbeth.com
Work With Marisa
- This summer, Marisa will be taking on a handful of new writing coaching clients. If you are an aspiring author, a wellness professional, or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, set up a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
- Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot www.marisagoudy.com
- Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and join listeners' community.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
OUR STORY:
Niall of the Nine Hostages was an Irish king and the first sovereign of the powerful Uí Néill dynasty. Mari Kennedy’s telling of the story begins with the birth of Niall, son of a king and an enslaved woman. In the story’s most powerful, enduring element, we meet the Hag the Well, and witness her transformation into the shining Sovereignty Goddess.
OUR GUEST
Mari Kennedy is a global gatherer of Celtic women, a yoga, breathwork, and embodiment teacher and Sovereign Woman's coach and Mentor. Six years ago she founded The Celtic Wheel, a global online journey of ritual, myth and practice for women who want to do the sacred work of the feminine.
Her work weaves ancient esoteric indigenous wisdom with evolutionary modern science in service to the new more beautiful world she believes is emerging. Her passion across all her work is in uniting the opposites and playing the polarities of being human.
Find Mari at www.marikennedy.com, www.thecelticwheel.com, and on Instagram: @marikennedywisdom
Work with MarisaMarisa is a writing coach for wellness professionals, entrepreneurs, and aspiring authors. Learn more about her services and book a complementary consultation: www.writingcoachmarisa.com
Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and join listeners' community.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
The twelfth century poet Chrétien de Troyes gives us the story of Perceval, a holy fool from the wild woods who visits the court of the Fisher King and eventually becomes the epitome of the chivalric knight.
In this retelling by Tara Wild, he meets three women, each with her own archetypal energy: the Grail Bearer, the Mourning Maiden, and the Loathly Lady. This story comes from Arthurian legend, and remains some of the only native mythology of Britain.
Our Guest
Tara Wild is a women’s educator, storyteller and songstress, focusing on uplifting nature-based feminine wisdom & ancestral teachings from Ireland & Britain. She's been on a journey of remembering and reclamation for over ten years, honoring the earth based feminine wisdom left in her blood and bones.
She's the creator of The Roundhouse, an online membership community that lovingly guides women into nature based feminine wisdom from the Irish traditions. She also runs courses, events, and workshops that serve thousands of women every year. She's trained as a Women’s Moon Circle facilitator with Moon Mná based in Dublin, Ireland, as a Keening & Breathwork facilitator.
She journeys to Ireland & Britain regularly for pilgrimage, and currently lives on the ancestral lands of the Ute and Arapaho people in the mountains of so-called Colorado (USA).
Find her on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and at tara-wild.com.
Continue your journey in Arthurian legend with Tara in her upcoming Women of the Wells workshop.
Our Conversation
- The power of curiosity and the courage to ask the right question.
- This is a story of transformation and the quest for spiritual maturity, not about the materialist prize of the grail
- The archetypal energies in the story: Grail Bearer is life, the Mourning Maiden is Death, the Loathly Lady is Transformation and Rebirth.
- The wasteland - in mythology, in the landscape, and in the psyche. What does it mean to live upon land that has lost its heart and in a society that has lost its soul?
- This story invites us to encounter the wildness of The Loathly Lady and the grief of the Mourning Maiden. We tend to both embrace and reject these intense, difficult women and all they represent.
- Is the Grail Bearer voiceless, or is she the power of silence?
- Book recommendation: Circle of Stones: Woman's Journey to Herself by Judith Duerk
- Mythology offers us a map back to ourselves that helps us restore balance in ourselves and in the wider world.
Our Music is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle & multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts: billyandbeth.com
Work with MarisaMarisa is a writing coach for wellness professionals, entrepreneurs, and aspiring authors. Learn more about her services and book a complementary consultation: www.writingcoachmarisa.com
Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and join listeners' community.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
According to the New York Times, Owen King’s new novel The Curator is “a horror-tinged historical fantasy set in a city upended by revolution." Owen joins us to read an excerpt that highlights both the social landscape and the mythology and folklore he created for the story. And yes, it most definitely involves cats.
Our Guest
Owen King is the author of The Curator, Double Feature, and We’re All in This Together: A Novella and Stories. He is the coauthor of Sleeping Beauties and Intro to Alien Invasion and the coeditor of Who Can Save Us Now? Brand-New Superheroes and Their Amazing (Short) Stories. He lives in upstate New York with his family.
Our Conversation
- In the story, cats are considered as holy creatures by many people in the society, particularly in the lower classes. Owen consciously chose not to sentimentalize or anthropomorphize them and let them do “cat stuff” that hints at magic or higher knowledge.
- The act of world-building and creating a mythology “from scratch” as a novelist, including the creation of the “oral tradition.”
- Stories as a way to make meaning in life.
- The Curator is a heroine’s tale, to some extent, not just because it has a female protagonist, but because Dora’s ability to move about is limited by her gender in this Victorian-like society. How her character transforms through the course of the story.
- The various old women and crones in this story - the lady who reflects the truth, the evil twins outside society, and the otherworldly “fate” like being
- Audiobooks and the power of a narrator, particularly the “wildly gifted storyteller” Marin Ireland
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." billyandbeth.com
Work with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers & creative entrepreneurs.
Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and join listeners' community.
Our Story
In Season 2 of KnotWork Storytelling, Marisa Goudy took Seamus Heaney’s translation of the Irish medieval epic poem, Sweeney Astray and crafted Lost in the Wild, At Home Within: A Story of Mad Sweeney. In that retelling of a pagan warrior king driven into exile by a saint’s curse, there wasn’t time to explore the women’s stories. This time, Marisa presents a conversation between Eoran, Sweeney’s wife, and the Mill Hag, who played a key part in Sweeney’s time in the wilds.
Our Guest
Loraine Van Tuyl, PhD, CHT, is a licensed clinical psychologist, a shamanic eco psychologist, and a Depth Hypnosis practitioner. She has distilled thirty years of diverse and well-rounded professional experiences into an elegant and seamless integration of modern psychological expertise, ancient healing practices, and nature wisdom. She was born and raised in Suriname, the most forest-covered nation in the world, which inspired her unique Soul Authority™, Re-Naturing©, and Re-TREE-ting© methods. These tools have empowered hundreds of spiritual empaths and transformational leaders in psychology, holistic health, academia, the arts, renewable energy, economics, social justice work, and spiritual entrepreneurship by connecting them to their innate wisdom and healing powers.
She is the author of Amazon Wisdom Keeper: a Psychologist’s Memoir of Spiritual Awakening and Soul Authority: Liberatory Tools to Heal from Oppressive Patterns and Restore Trust in Your Heart Compass.
Find Loraine: website, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube
Our Conversation
- This is a dialog between two women with very different perspectives, but it’s also a conversation between civilization and the wilderness, between Christianity and the old ways that came before.
- Speaking as a psychotherapist, Loraine explores trauma around attachment and Gabor Maté - the struggle to be safely attached and also authentically ourselves. How do we connect, trust, and grieve in that context?
- Gabor Maté’s work is particularly relevant to the legacy of collective and individual trauma in Ireland. Kathy Scott’s work with Irish cultural organization, The Trailblazery, is devoted to applying these ideas, promoting healing and “post traumatic growth.”
- Patriarchal conditioning that causes women to focus on the needs of men. Their conversation definitely does not pass the Bechdel Test, which measures whether women in a story discuss something other than men and male interests.
- Loraine’s diverse ethnic background as a woman from Suriname, and her PhD dissertation on diversity and identity. Her work as a healer is focused on reconnecting to nature, beyond dualities and is rooted in a critique of clinical psychology that is based on ego and obtaining objectives
- What it means to align all the parts of ourselves and be comfortable being both Eorann and the Hag.
- Lorraine describes the importance of the elements in her healing work, as well as the practice of re-TREE-ting, at the Sacred Healing Well. Learn more: www.thesacredhealingwell.com/SoulSanctuarymeditation
Work with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers & creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called Healing for Heroines sessions.
Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and join listeners' community.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Katy Swift shares a story of Scotland’s creation and the cycle of the seasons, featuring the Cailleach, the goddess of winter, and Bride, the goddess of spring. The story is inspired by Donald Alexander Mackenzie’s Scottish Wonder Tales from Myth and Legend. Katy’s version offers us a vision of the Cailleach as creatrix, and explores why this mother god transformed into fearsome figure remembered in Scotland today.
Our Guest
Katy Swift is a Socially Engaged Artist and Storyteller from Northumberland, now based in the Scottish Borders. Her work aims to create social and political change with individuals, groups or communities through weaving together Scottish Gaelic folklore, mythology, folk herbalism and creative practices. She recently graduated with an MA in Socially Engaged Art with the University of the Highlands and Islands, where she focused on how ritual and creative practices can help us to process our collective grief for the Earth.
Our Conversation
- KnotWork Storytelling tends to emphasize the Irish storytelling tradition. Listeners will hear familiar names in this tale - Cailleach, Angus, and Bride who shares so much in common with Brigid - but Katy’s tale brings us deep into the unique nature of the Scottish mythological tradition
- In our most recent episode about Cessair ended just as the great flood waters rose, which is just where this story began, as the Cailleach, a giant, wades through the waters and creates the land.
- This story is tied to the Celtic Wheel of the Year, particularly the Scottish Là na Caillich or Auld Wives Day or Ladies’ Day, the day that the cailleach falls asleep for spring and summer, which falls on March 25.
- Once these stories were reminders to trust the cycles of the seasons. Now, these stories are medicine as we grieve as a species, unsure of where we belong in the natural order of things.
- Katy’s own story of eventually falling in love with the stories of the Scottish Borderlands after years of seeking endless summer and studying the stories of Southeast Asia.
- The importance of liminal spaces in Scottish folklore, including past podcast episode, The Man Without a Story, told by Michael Newton
- Keith Basso’s book Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache, describes how holding a place name in your mouth is to speak the words of the ancestors
- The significance of place names in Scotland and the resurgence of the Scots Gaelic language
Work with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers & creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called Healing for Heroines sessions.
Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and join listeners' community.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Ireland doesn’t have a creation story, but it does have Lebor Gabála Érenn, the Book of Invasions. The first invasion was led by Cessair, a granddaughter of Noah who took her own boat to Ireland to avoid that great Biblical flood.
Our Guest
Carmen is a marketing consultant who works with purpose-driven entrepreneurs. She gives entrepreneurs the tools to cultivate rich and diverse ecosystems where they can thrive. She believes in connecting with your natural gifts—intuition, curiosity, and discernment—to guide the creation of a sustainable business that meets your needs and goals.
Join Carmen on Substack for inspiration on weaving the threads of your life and business into a thriving ecosystem. You can find more information on her website, wildpreneur.com. Follow Carmen on Instagram and Facebook.
Our Conversation
- The big questions we explore in this episode: What stories get told and passed on. What makes a myth “real”? Who are the “winners of culture”? Which parts of civilisation, culture are we meant to rewrite and rewild? Rather than tearing down the master’s house, what if we are meant to build a new boat? Is technology, including artificial intelligence “the next flood”?
- What’s the source of this story? Scholars say it was conceived to further Ireland’s desire to establish Christianity and a Biblical pedigree, but the myth may have been rooted into something much older: an older goddess or memory of the floods that would have come with the end of the last ice age.
- Marisa’s inventions: the reason Cessair and family were not included on the Ark and her meeting with the trinity of goddesses who gave Ireland its name: Éiru, Banba and Fódla.
- The power of sharing your unique story and art and bringing it through your unique lens in this age of ChatGPT and AI, as entrepreneurs and creatives
- The stories of navigation and destinations reached and the myths of the rudderless boat, sent beyond the ninth wave to enter a new adventure
- The way we look at business is like how we look at our gardens. Ecological consciousness, applied to business and marketing, but also to the very practical way we live upon the earth, like choosing plants that are truly helpful for butterflies
- The work of Mary Reynolds, a “recovering landscape designer,” and author of We Are the Ark. Her work of Acts of Restorative Kindness in order to live in relationship with the earth.
- Article in the New Yorker, The End of the English Major: liberal arts as a way into so many different ways of knowing.
- Carmen’s guiding principle, a quote from Gurudev Shri Amritji: “We exist in perpetual creative response.” We remain open minded and open to the moment without judgment and move forward from that place.
Work with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers & creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called Healing for Heroines sessions.
Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and join listeners' community.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Three stories from Turtle Island - from Antigonish in Nova Scotia, Alaska, and the Cape Fear River in North Carolina - speak to expectations of race, ethnicity, and skin color, particularly when it comes to Scottish identity and the Gaelic language.
Our Guest
Dr Michael Newton earned a Ph.D. in Celtic Studies from the University of Edinburgh in 1998 and was an Assistant Professor in the Celtic Studies department of St Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. He has written a multitude of books and articles about Gaelic culture and history and is a leading authority on Scottish Gaelic heritage in North America. In 2018, he was recognized with the International award at the annual Scottish Gaelic awards. His most recent book is called Into the Fairy Hill: Classic Folktales of the Scottish Highlands.
Read Michael's scholarly articles.
Join Michael's online learning community, the Hidden Glen Folk School of Scottish Highland Heritage.
Hear Michael's story from season 1 of KnotWork Storytelling, The Man Without a Story.
Our Conversation
- Michael brings together these three stories together because of the way the language and storytelling tradition bring communities together and the way a person of color who speaks the language comes as a surprise
- The Gaelic language spread with the Scottish immigrants and the language was resilient enough to include new populations who didn’t look like our expectation of “what a Scottish person looks like.”
- The imperial nature of the Anglophone world places English as the language of dominance and control.
- Encounters between different cultures: who is the insider and who is the outsider? Questions of identity, between the Tuatha Dé Dannan and the Fomorians, between the Norse pagans and the nominally Christian Gaels
- We’re watching people use Scottish identity as a shorthand for white identity, but Gaelic community has always been diverse. The Gaelic tradition is about the language and the culture, not about genetics or surnames.
- The history of Scottish people being a second class citizen in an Anglo-dominated society - they removed “Mac” from their name, stopped sharing the language with their children.
- Differences in Scottish and Irish immigration experiences
- How the academy was created to spread whiteness, Anglo-Saxonness, colonialism and ignores the cultural expression of all others, particularly of the Celtic peoples
- You are a meaningful member of the community when you participate and contribute, not just because of your name and ancestry
- What does heritage mean? What has been submerged? What stories do we wish to tell? What are the underlying psychic wounds related to history and identity?
Work with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers & creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called Healing for Heroines sessions.
Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and join listeners' community.
Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
“Driftwood Man” is a timeless tale of longing and belonging, existential homesickness and ultimately coming home that is both deeply Irish and unmistakably global. This original story emerged as artist-performer-activist Dee Mulrooney emigrated from Dublin to Berlin and speaks of the longing for home, land, and belonging.
Our Guest
Dee Mulrooney is a multi-disciplinary Irish artist. Inhabiting a female body, and all that itentails, is the main preoccupation of her work. She explores exile, class, displacement, social history, longing and belonging through various media, including painting, drawing, film, storytelling, and performance.
She is driven by story and symbolism, how we remember and interpret history and women ́s role and their bodies within that.
Dee has exhibited and performed dozens of times in Ireland, England and Berlin. Projects and collaborations include, Bridget ́s Flamin show 2023, HerStory Illuminations 2023, sell out shows at the Dublin Fringe and Cairde Sligo Arts Festival 2022, Burning Woman Festival 2022, Healing Bridges Festival 2022, “Stay with me” Tuam babies exhibition 2021, and many independent shows in Ireland and Berlin. In 2019, she co-formed the feminist “ Holy Cvnt Collective.”
Find Dee at deirdre-mulrooney.com, on Instagram, Tiktok, and FB
Our Conversation
- Exile and emigration: Dee wrote this story as she and her family were moving from Dublin to Berlin. She is an artist who presents the visceral, fragile nature of the body, who began creating when it became necessary to leave her beloved country to find safe, affordable housing for her family
- What it is like to walk the earth as a woman always homesick for Ireland. What calls the Irish diaspora and those with a soul connection to that land, and how it is to hold that when you might live on distant, colonized lands.
- Creativity as medicine
- Our cultural obsession with perfect health, perfect success, which is so different from the ancestors. What if we rejected anti-aging and embraced “Auntie Aging”?
- Dee’s identity as an artist and as a person with a working class background and how she “makes art in the cracks of the day”
- The inception and experience of being Growler, the 82 year-old cigarette smoking, cocktail drinking vagina with a tongue like a lash and a heart of gold who is wise as witches, from an area of inner-city Dublin called the Liberties.
- A celebration of the feminine and women, but also of men and the masculine, and the non-binary times we’re living in, too.
- Dee’s collaboration with an Irish publication, The Wild Word, which calls in the stories of marginalized voices: and artist Eva Garland.
- The inspiration for Driftwood Man came from a puppet made by Christian Wingrove-Rogers. Watch the short animation-art film of the story.
Work with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers & creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called Healing for Heroines sessions.
Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and join our vibrant listeners' community.
Please Support Our Show on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
As the film, the Banshees of Inisherin receives awards across the world, we explore stories of the bean sí, the Irish fairy woman who was considered a harbinger of death. Our guest, Caoimhe Nic Giollarnáith, brings us stories from Ireland’s Schools Collection as well as and stories her own childhood.
Our Guest
Caoimhe Nic Giollarnáith is originally from County Kildare. She has always had a keen interest in Irish folklore and mythology and grew up listening to her father tell stories in Irish about the féar gortach and bean sí. She attended Irish language medium schools and graduated from University of Galway, with BA and MA degrees in Modern Irish. While studying at University of Galway, Caoimhe took Irish Folklore courses taught by Dr. Lillis Ó Laoire. She has over 10 years of teaching experience as an Adjunct Professor and recently earned the Certificate in teaching Irish to adults from Maynooth University. Caoimhe currently teaches Irish language and literature undergraduate courses at Lehman College, City University New York and Irish language classes for adults at the Irish Arts Center, Manhattan and New York Irish Center in Queens. She also teaches one-to-one classes. Her clients include the families of Irish diplomats working at the United Nations and Irish Consulate, New York. In the past, she has taught Irish language courses at Fordham University, Manhattan College and Rosetta Stone. In February 2020, she received a Top 40 Under 40 award from The Irish Echo. Caoimhe is a regular guest on Irish language radio shows on BBC, RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta and featured in the Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) award nominated documentary series GAA USA broadcast on TG4. In June, Caoimhe will be launching her own Irish language classes online and in-person in Manhattan.
Our Conversation
- The wealth of folklore found at Duchas.ie, the database of Ireland’s National Folklore Collection. Find the story from this episode here.
- The Irish language“talkie” film: Oidhche Sheanchais, from 1935 which features a night of storytelling and keening on the Aran Islands.
- Death in Ireland and the culture of large funerals and how it differs from the US
- Meeting the Badb, another face of the banshee
- Reclaiming the legacy of Peig Sayers, the Irish storyteller whose memoir was required reading for generations of Irish students
Work with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers & creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called Healing for Heroines sessions.
Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and join our vibrant listeners' community.
Our Story
The “Pillow Talk” scene opens theTáin Bó Cúailnge, the Irish mythological epic. Queen Medb and King Ailill compare the wealth they brought to the marriage. This private conversation becomes a war that involves all of the greatest warriors of the time.
In Marisa's retelling of the story, which originally appeared in her book, The Sovereignty Knot, she highlights the way Queen Medb was known for instigating this great battle, but also for her powerful sexuality and her association with the Sovereignty Goddess.
Our Guest
Lee Chaix McDonough is the founder of Coach With Clarity, where creative, innovative professionals discover how to combine their talents, experience, and intuition with a powerful coaching methodology, so they can create a flexible, meaningful business that serves their people and supports their families — without selling their souls..
She is also the host of the Coach with Clarity podcast and author of the #1 Amazon bestseller, ACT On Your Business: Braving the storms of entrepreneurship and creating success through meaning, mindset, and mindfulness.
You can follow Lee on Instagram, on Facebook and visit her website: www.coachwithclarity.com.
Our Conversation
- What it means to be “a difficult woman”
- Money stories and the idea of “girl money” or “mom money” that make women’s earnings seem less important or worthy
- When Medb is, and isn’t, a model of who we want to be
- The Princess, Queen, and the Wise Woman - meant to be balanced within us
- Our psychological desire for the binary, especially when we are under stress and need ease
- Medb’s voracious sexuality; Medb and Aillill as a sex positive couple with an open marriage
Work with MarisaSign up for the Gift of the Shapeshifter, a free online workshop on March 1 or 6.
Join our creative community, the Heroine's Knot. Our next 13-week program begins March 8.
Marisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers & creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called Healing for Heroines sessions.
Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and join our vibrant listeners' community.
Our story
Mitlé Southey retells a classic story from her childhood home, the Fens of East Anglia, collected by Mrs. M.C. Balfour from the 1890s.
The moon becomes trapped in a marsh pool. Without her light, the bogles and beasts of the darkness take over the Fens. The local people miss her light. Through a combination of community effort and the wisdom of the old woman at the edge of the bog, they finally find and liberate the moon.
Our Guest
Mitlé is a Circle Holder walking the ancient path whilst contributing to a modern movement. The founder of Circle School, she teaches internationally and has facilitated circles, retreats and courses since 2016. She believes in the power of connection, community and circle to provide a path of integrity back to ourselves, and authentic relationship with the more than human world. As a woman of British heritage, Mitle’s circles and courses are deeply rooted in the old Western wisdom traditions and British native mythology. As a former lawyer now learning the old ways, she is seeking ways to fracture the current systems that uphold oppression and is committed to increasing her capacity to hold diverse, inclusive and safer spaces for those marginalised by those systems. When not in Circle, she can usually be found out walking or in a cosy corner with a book and a cup of tea.
Find Mitlé at mitlesouthey.com, Instagram, Substack, You Tube, and on The Circle School Podcast
Watch her free 10-day introductory course on holding women's circles.
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." billyandbeth.com
Work with MarisaSign up for the Gift of the Shapeshifter, a free online workshop on March 1 or 6.
Join our creative community, the Heroine's Knot. Our next 13-week program begins March 8.
Marisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers & creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called Healing for Heroines sessions.
Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and join our vibrant listeners' community.
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and join our vibrant listeners' community.
Our Story
In recent years, the rosary has been used to shame and restrain women and sexuality, but what if it is actually the umbilical cord that connects us to The Mother?
Support the Show on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
In recent years, the rosary has been used to shame and restrain women and sexuality, but what if it is actually the umbilical cord that connects us to The Mother?
When the rosary emerged in the 11th or 12th century, the Church was telling a story that began with Eve’s sin and ended with apocalypse. But ordinary women were living and telling a different story. It was a story that was expressed in a great circle, not in a straight line of patriarchal history.
Perdita Finna tells us a story of women’s empowerment hidden in plain sight. She unfolds the mysteries of the rosary, reclaiming the prayers and practice as an act of power.
Our Guest
Perdita Finn is the co-author, of The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary and co-founder of the global community that sprang from that work. Perdita teaches popular workshops on collaborating with the dead, in which participants are empowered to activate miracles in their own lives with the help of their ancestors. Her book Take Back the Magic: Conversations with the Unseen World is forthcoming in September 2023.
You can find more about Perdita on her website wayoftherose.org and her new Substack newsletter, Take Back the Magic,
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." billyandbeth.com
Work with MarisaJoin our creative community, the Heroine's Knot. Our next 13-week program begins March 1.
Marisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers & creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called Healing for Heroines sessions.
Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and join our vibrant listeners' community.
Support the Show on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
Líadain and Cuirithir’s romance is the stuff of medieval tragedy. Two bards fall in love, but Líadain makes a choice that alters their shared fate. They end up at a monastic order, forever bound in chaste conversation--until the night they break their vows.
Sinead O’Connor was Marisa’s muse for this tale from 700-800 BCE that highlights that it has always been hard to balance career, love, and calling.
Main source for this story: Notre Dame Medieval Studies Department
Our Guest
Bethany Hegedus’ children’s picture books include the award-winning Grandfather Gandhi and Be the Change: A Grandfather Gandhi Story, both co-written with Arun Gandhi, as well as Rise!: From Caged Bird to Poet of the People: Dr. Maya Angelou and Hard Work But It’s Worth It: The Life of Jimmy Carter. Her books have been included in numerous “best of” lists such as A Mighty Girl’s Best Books and Kirkus’ Best Books of the Year. A former educator, Bethany is an in-demand keynote speaker, workshop leader, and mentor who speaks and teaches across the country about writing, creativity, resilience, and privilege. She is the Founder and Creative Director of The Writing Barn, a writing retreat and workshop space in Austin, Texas. She is also the host of the popular Courage to Create podcast.
Find Bethany at bethanyhegedus.com.
Instagram @thewritingbarn
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." billyandbeth.com
Work with MarisaJoin our creative community, the Heroine's Knot. Our next 13-week program begins March 1.
Marisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers & creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called Healing for Heroines sessions.
Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and join our vibrant listeners' community.
Support the Show on Substack
Love KnotWork Storytelling? Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.
Our Story
The goddess Brigid is known to be a daughter of Dagda, “the Good God.” But who was her mother?
Inspired by the mythology and her own intuitive imagination and imbas forosnai, Laura shares own story of Brigid’s birth at Newgrange at Brú na Bóinne in County Meath. The child comes from the Milky Way, and follows the way of her mother: the goddess Bóinn.
This story continues the tale of Bóinn that Laura shared with us in Season 2, Episode 7
Our Guest
Laura Murphy is an activist, healer and Poet in Residence for Herstory, the powerful movement in Ireland dedicated to the stories of modern, historic, and mythical women.
Laura is a passionate campaigner for Ireland’s Mother and Baby home survivors and other issues surrounding equality, environmental and social healing including the recent successful campaign to make Brigid’s Day a national public holiday in Ireland.
Laura’s work is centered around the ancient Irish poetic practice of imbas forosnai, which means “Inspiration that Illuminates.” Comparable to the Buddhist concept of Enlightenment or contemporary “flow-state,” imbas forosnai is said to be a gift of the Goddesses Bóinn and Brigid. It was a practice mastered by the ancient poets of Ireland to bring truth to power and healing to society.
Watch the “Is Mise” Lightshow, Brigid’s Day in Kildare 2022.
Follow Laura on Instagram.
Our Music
Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." billyandbeth.com
Work with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers & creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called Healing for Heroines sessions.
Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot www.marisagoudy.com
Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and join our vibrant listeners' community.
Our Story Marisa reads an excerpt from her 2020 book, https://www.marisagoudy.com/sovereignty-knot (The Sovereignty Knot), in which she imagines three Irish goddesses, Brigid, the Morrígan, and the Cailleach all walk into a bar and have a chat about what women really want. After the story, Marisa explores: Marisa reads an excerpt from her 2020 book, The Sovereignty Knot, in which she imagines three Irish goddesses, Brigid, the Morrígan, and the Cailleach all walk into a bar and have a chat about what women really want. After the story, Marisa explores: She closes this season of KnotWork Storytelling as she opened it: with a solo episode and her own story that is inspired by Irish lore, but is entirely her own invention. The origins of the Celtic Sovereignty Goddess and the meaning of Sovereignty in Irish and Celtic culture. It’s not about toxic individualism or nationalism! The tendency we have to “orphan” our creative work and move on to the next project too quickly The question “what do women want” is drawn from the Dame Ragnell story from Arthurian legend. You’ll find a retelling of the story in The Sovereignty Knot. Why, in these difficult times, we need mythology and goddesses like these more than ever.
Get a free copy of The Sovereignty Knot Get a free ebook edition of The Sovereignty Knot: A Woman’s Way to Freedom, Power, Love, and Magic between November 2 - 6, 2022. https://amzn.to/3ft0LCm (Visit Amazon to get the Kindle edition.) To get a signed paperback edition, including a personalized Sovereignty Note with a one card tarot reading that offers insight into your relationship with the Princess, Queen, and Wise Woman archetypes you’ll meet in the book, visit Marisa’s website: http://www.marisagoudy.com/sovereignty-knot (www.marisagoudy.com/sovereignty-knot) Our Music Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/billyandbeth.com (billyandbeth.com) Work with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines (Healing for Heroines) packages. She also offers https://www.marisagoudy.com/story-weaver-book-coaching (Story Weaver Book Coaching )for memoirists, thought leaders, and creative entrepreneurs at the beginning of their writing journey. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling (Facebook), and https://www.facebook.com/groups/4429930243750952 (join our vibrant listeners' community).
Our Story The Cailleach is the longest living supernatural woman in the Celtic tradition. This goddess is a world builder who consorted with kings and is still associated with the landscape today. Our guest, Kate Chadbourne, brings us a story from County Mayo about a man who chose to test himself by setting out on a walk with the Cailleach. She weaves the threads of many other Cailleach stories throughout our conversation. Our Guest Kate Chadbourne is a singer, harper, and storyteller. She's an award-winning songwriter and poet, a scholar and teacher of Irish language and folklore with a PhD from Harvard who performs at venues throughout New England. Her latest book is “A November Visit,” a gathering of “Novemberish” stories, poems, and seasonal delights, including Irish folklore, a taste of etymology, recipes, and riddles. Kate is the founder of The Bardic Academy, a school for writers, musicians, singers, and young scholars. This year she opened The Celtic Wisdom School which offers online courses that weave together Irish folklore, creativity, and enchantment. If you’d like to learn about Fáilte the Irish Art of Welcome, Kate has a gift for you. Please visit her at http://katechadbourne.com/ (katechadbourne.com) to join the Fáilte Revolution! Our Conversation Samhain is the time for stories of the Cailleach, which “touch the essentials,” and speak to our relationship to the earth, to food, to the elements, to health, longevity, and what you really need in life. We have knowledge of the Cailleach from folk tradition, and also from the 9th century poem, “https://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/beare.html (The Lament of the Hag of Beare).” Recorded by Christian monks, in the poem, the old woman laments “you people only care about money, in my day, it was people we cared about.” An essential resource: Gearóid Ó Crualaoich’s https://bookshop.org/a/832/9781859184127 (The Book of the Cailleach: Stories of the Wise-Woman Healer ) The story of https://www.jstor.org/stable/20522313 (Donnchadh Mór )Mac Mánais and the Cailleach in which they engage in a contest to flail the fields (thresh for grain). “You can never trust a woman who relies on a man for all her butter” - a line featured Marisa’s retelling of Mongfind’s story (https://knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/irish-goddess-queen-witch-ep-2 (Ireland's Forgotten Goddess Queen Witch S1 Ep 2)) The paradoxes of the Cailleach: she is the old woman, and yet she’s the essence of joyful busyness and creation. And, the Cailleach as a solitary figure who is also so dedicated to community. Comhar is the Irish word for shared work or mutual assistance. It’s reminiscent of the Quechuan term for reciprocity, ayni. A proverb: Arsa Cailleach Ghaoth Dobhair le Cailleach Mhaigh Eo, “An té a bheas go maith duit, bí go maith dó.” (Said the Cailleach of Gweedore to the Cailleach of Mayo: The person who is good to you, you be good to him.) Kate’s vision of the The Cailleach’s Conspiracy and how it echoes the story told in S2 Ep 9, Life and Death At the Farm Atop the Hill The shapeshifting nature of the Cailleach. Kate’s story of meeting a real life cailleach in Bantry when she was 20 The story of the serving girl, the hard hearted woman, and the woman of the roads “To be a great singer is to be a servant of the song.”
Our Music Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/billyandbeth.com (billyandbeth.com) Work with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines (Healing for Heroines) packages. She also offers https://www.marisagoudy.com/story-weaver-book-coaching (Story Weaver Book Coaching )for memoirists,...
Our Story This trio of stories about holy wells, faith, and illness traces the evolution–or perhaps the devolution–of folk belief and the power ascribed to sacred waters and places. Our guest Elizabeth Stack begins with two stories from Tipperary: a teenaged boy cured at St. Patrick’s Well in Clonmel and a weeping statue of Mother Mary in Templemore during the Irish War of Independence. Elizabeth closes with a story of her grandmother’s family, when a young child died of a mysterious illness in Limerick in 1920. Our Guest Elizabeth Stack is the Executive Director of the Irish American Heritage Museum in Albany, NY. Previously, she taught Irish and Irish American History and was an Associate Director of the Institute of Irish Studies at Fordham. She completed her PhD at Fordham, writing about Irish and German immigrants in New York at the turn of the twentieth century. She has a master’s degree in Anglo-Irish Relations in the 20th Century from University College Dublin. A native of Listowel, in Co. Kerry, Elizabeth sees a clear connection between her own experience as an immigrant - she moved to the US in 2009 - and with the important mission of the museum to preserve and share Irish heritage and culture. Find the Museum at http://www.irish-us.org (www.irish-us.org) on https://www.facebook.com/IrishAmericaMus (Facebook) and on https://twitter.com/IrishAmericaMus (Twitte)r. Subscribe to their https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-PPDoD7UXoHbNJfzBjlSkA (YouTube channel) Our Conversation During the centuries of Penal Laws, Irish Catholicism was a strange blend of paganism and what could be remembered from the Latin church. The Devotional Revolution of the mid-nineteenth century crystalized the version of Irish Catholicism we’ve known in recent history. This was further with Ireland’s first president, Éamon de Valera and his insular vision of Ireland. The way pilgrims flocked to Templemore in the midst of a war when the town was full of IRA and Black and Tan forces. Michael Collins’s role in the investigation of the Marian apparitions. The 1920s, when Elizabeth’s grandmother was a child, was a time of restriction when dances at the crossroads were banned and women feared being sent to the Magdalene Laundries. Her stories of growing up contained “a kind of darkness.” She despised and denied Frank McCourt’s description of Limerick in Angela’s Ashes, but perhaps because it was too close to home. Now, Ireland is more progressive than Irish America. In Ireland, where mass attendance is down and there are few priests, and same sex marriage was accepted by a national vote, you’ll find a more welcoming, less structured version of the church. It’s a conscious return to the original Celtic Christianity. Ireland didn’t have a witch burning phenomenon because herbal medicine and other forms of “women’s healing” were commonplace rather than strange and suspect. The clash and blend of the matriarchal society and patriarchal government and church. In the tradition of the warrior goddesses who trained Cú Chullain, Scathach and Aoife, women were deeply involved in the 1916 rebellion, but they were excluded from public life in the Irish Republic. The evolution of the Irish American Heritage Museum and its mission of creating empathy for all people enduring hunger, exclusion, and exile. It is not intended to be a shrine to a misremembered past.
Our Music Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/billyandbeth.com (billyandbeth.com) Work with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines (Healing for Heroines) packages. She also...
Our Story Before Ethne became a queen of Tara and married Cormac mac Airt, she was a foster child to Buchet, a man known for his tremendous hospitality. In this story, Marisa Goudy imagines Ethne’s perspective on this 12th century Irish tale. Our Guest Elizabeth Shaw is an author, consultant, speaker, and facilitator who brings her core philosophies of practical optimism and radical hospitality to everything she does. Whether she's planning a custom Cirque du Soleil show, working as an hospitality consultant for organizations like Toyota and State Farm, a strategic partner for entrepreneurs and thought leaders, or inspiring audiences around the world with her book The Optimist Manifesto, Elizabeth brings a thread of collaboration, service, and whimsy to all she does. Equal parts head in the cloud and feet on the ground, Elizabeth is an optimistic strategist who puts people and purpose at the center of all of her work. Our Conversation Hospitality is an Irish tradition that dates back to the Brehon laws and https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2022/0314/1286239-ireland-hospitality-welcome-strangers-medieval-brehon-laws (still echoes in the culture today.) Elizabeth brings her lived definition of hospitality to the conversation: it’s about being seen, being welcomed, and being cared for. Hospitality is about more than feasts, merriment, and the perfect house. It’s also about offering care and a safe space. The gender roles associated with hospitality and being the “perfect hostess” Hospitality creates community and depends on community, not on an individual who needs to do it all. Marisa wrote this story in the first person, a first for one of her KnotWork stories. Ethne represents the movement from the Princess to Queen archetype described in The Sovereignty Knot. Her foster father, the great host, holds the Wise Woman energy. There is a sexual assault at the center of the original story. Rape is a common element in mythology, and Marisa and Elizabeth spoke at length about how to stay true to the source material, and yet tell a story about hospitality that made Ethne a heroine. They didn’t want to erase the trauma to tell a “nice” story, but there was a desire to present Ethne as a sovereign being, rather than a victim. The importance of reciprocity. What it’s like to give too much and what it’s like to feel like you’re not good at offering hospitality. The Irish word for welcome is fáilte This tale appears in the c. 1160 CE manuscript, The Book of Leinster, and is commonly called http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/ctexts/buchet.html (The Melody of the House of Buchet.)
Our Music Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/billyandbeth.com (billyandbeth.com) Work with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines (Healing for Heroines) packages. She also offers https://www.marisagoudy.com/story-weaver-book-coaching (Story Weaver Book Coaching )for memoirists, thought leaders, and creative entrepreneurs at the beginning of their writing journey. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling (Facebook), and https://www.facebook.com/groups/4429930243750952 (join our vibrant listeners' community).
Our Story In a departure from our usual format, our guest Christian Bolden tells a personal story of visiting Ireland for the first time as a graduate student. He describes his experience as an African American in Dublin in 2016, a moment when three events captured attention: the US presidential election, the killing of Alton Sterling, and the death of Muhammad Ali. Christian’s story echoes that of Frederick Douglass, the Black abolitionist, who traveled to Ireland on an extensive speaking tour when he was a young man in 1845. Douglass found kinship with Daniel O’Connell, “The Liberator” who devoted his life to the repeal of the Penal Laws that inhibited the rights of Irish Catholics for centuries. Our Guest Hailing from New Orleans, Louisiana, Christian Bolden now resides in Washington D.C. due to the catastrophic events of Hurricane Katrina. Christian is an inaugural board member of the African-American Irish Diaspora Network (AAIDN) with a mission dedicated to fostering relationships between African Americans and Ireland through shared heritage and culture. You’ll hear a lot more about the organization during our conversation. The AAIDN is just one aspect of Christian’s community-building work. He has also been part of the Steel Sharpens Steel Summit a panel discussion committed to the enlightenment and enrichment of the Urban African-American Male Teen. He organized the "Re-New Orleans" event which commemorated the 5-Year Hurricane Katrina Anniversary and raised funding and awareness for the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Relief effort. A former Professional Staff Member in the U.S. House of Representatives, Bolden is now Principal at The Bolden Group which offers IT, Program/Project Management, and DEI services. Our Conversation The way we find kinship with historical and mythical figures. Frederick Douglass visited Ireland with a hope that there would be a sympathy for the abolitionist cause because there were echoes in the persecution of Catholics in Ireland. It’s incorrect and deeply problematic to equate the experience of the Irish immigrants with African people who were brought to America as slaves, and yet there’s something to learn when we see that there are similarities in aspects of the history. The power of curiosity in cross-cultural conversations. How Christian became a AAIDN, whose mission is to connect Ireland and African American communities. 38% of African Americans have Irish ancestry. One of their main projects includes the creation of the https://www.aaidnet.org/frederickdouglassway (Frederick Douglass Way) in Dublin, Cork, and Belfast with professor Christine Kinealy. Diversity is about as more than demographic - it’s about diversity in experience and in ideas 2020 discovery by archaeologists and geneticists:https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/early-irish-people-were-dark-skinned-with-blue-eyes-documentary-1.4541124 ( the Irish of 10,000 years ago had black skin and blue eyes). More stories about Black people in northern Europe across history: Bonnie Greer’s podcasthttps://amzn.to/3dZsCtg ( In Search of Black History) Connections across centuries and millennia For the record, the oldest pub in Dublin is the Brazen Head!
Learn more about the AAIDN https://www.aaidnet.org/board (www.aaidnet.org/) and find them on https://www.instagram.com/aaidnet/ (Instagram @aaidnet ) Find Christian on https://www.instagram.com/chrisvschristian%20/?hl=en (Instagram @chrisvschristian,) https://www.facebook.com/ChristianBolden84/ (Facebook), and https://twitter.com/ChristianBolden (Twitter)
Our Story This is a story of a cheerful, fearless farmhand named Fred who lived in the Fens, the marshy, bogs of East Anglia. He was at home in himself and on the land, and that attracted the jealousy of the other young men on the farm. This story, inspired by a tale called "The Syleham Lamps," collected in https://amzn.to/3RQ34xs (Kirsty Hartsiotis’s Suffolk Folk Tales), features the mysterious will-o'-the-wisps, the mysterious marsh lights that appear over the bogs of the Fens in eastern England. Our Guest Robyn Watt is an animist teacher and practitioner in the traditions of the British Isles. She offers programs for somatic nature connection, and soul and ancestor-tending in the field of the animist healing arts. After moving to Canada from the UK, Robyn navigated the experience of grieving for her homeland by reclaiming the ancient animist cosmologies of her ancestry. Through this, she came into the work of guiding others who also long to reconnect to their ancestral wisdom traditions from far away. Find Robyn at sacredearthgrove.com, in her online community oursacredcircles.com & on Instagram @sacred.earth.grove Our Conversation Robyn begins with an invocation of the ancestors and the land as she tells a story inspired by the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk, where she grew up and where her family has lived for centuries. What it means to live in North America and feel the call back to ancestral homelands. Robyn describes it as a wounding but also considers the gift of reconnection that follows the pain of disconnection. Animism upholds the sentience and aliveness of the world. It is rooted in the ancient understanding that the world can and wants to communicate with us is something that many modern people know in their bones, even before they know the word. Animism is a powerful way to cope with environmental crisis and climate anxiety. The perennial struggle of nature versus civilization, as embodied by Fred and his struggle with the other stable boys Disney brought the will o’ the wisps to popular consciousness in the movie Brave. As imperfect as Disney is, there’s magic in the way modern retellings give us access to the ancient in a vital way The Fens were also home to Queen Boudicca’s Iceni tribe Resources and sources of inspiration: artist and author Katie Holton’s work with the Ardee Bog in County Louth; Francis Pryor’s book https://amzn.to/3ra8Kqb (The Fens: Discovering England's Ancient Depths); Philip Pullman’s novel https://amzn.to/3Syz74Y (The Secret Commonwealth.) The scientific explanation for the marshlights or “ignis fatuus”: they are created by the oxidation of gasses produced by organic decay that cause photon emissions. But also… it’s magic!
Our Music Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/billyandbeth.com (billyandbeth.com) Work with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines (Healing for Heroines) packages. She also offers https://www.marisagoudy.com/story-weaver-book-coaching (Story Weaver Book Coaching )for memoirists, thought leaders, and creative entrepreneurs at the beginning of their writing journey. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling (Facebook), and https://www.facebook.com/groups/4429930243750952 (join our vibrant listeners' community).
Our Story The story of Deirdre or the Exile of the Sons of Uilsliu is a pre-tale of the Táin, the greatest epic in Irish mythology. At her birth, Deirdre is prophesied to bring ruin to Ulster. It is a tale of a despotic king, love at first sight, betrayal, and includes a brief mention of suicide. Our Guest Melinda Laus is a grief counselor and educator who understands grief as a normal, healthy part of being human. After the sudden and unexpected death of her late husband, Melinda learned that her healing was richer and deeper when she accessed nature and expressed herself through writing and photography. In addition to running a private practice in the Portland, Oregon area, Melinda is the founder of the online support community, The Nature of Grief. Find her onhttps://www.instagram.com/melindalaus/ ( Instagram) and onhttps://www.facebook.com/TheNatureofGrief ( Facebook) Our conversation This story of kings and failed leadership is also a story of young love and freedom. This retelling has echoes of a former American president, but also the death of Queen Elizabeth, and the tragedy of Princess Diana’s death. Deirdre is an unapologetic tragic figure, and that teaches us so much about permission to grieve and be sad in a culture rooted in toxic positivity Melinda’s story of losing her husband at age 31 and how that transformed her understanding of grief Power as held by royalty, the bards, and the druids as a parallel to the ruling elite, the media, and the religious establishment The play between the individual and the collective, as well as the result of toxic individualism Other forms and causes of grief, including climate grief and the grief caused by colonization and displacement The specific nature of “Irish grief” and a reference to poet Padraig Ó Tuama who reminds us that the Irish phrase tá brón orm, which translates to "the sadness is on me" Susan Cain’s book Bittersweet and the validity melancholic personality
The primary sources for this retelling of the tale: https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T301020/index.html (Douglas Hyde's translation of Deirdre) andhttps://celt.ucc.ie/published/T301020B.html ( Vernam Hill's translation of The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu. ) Our Music Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/billyandbeth.com (billyandbeth.com) Work with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines (Healing for Heroines) packages. She also offers https://www.marisagoudy.com/story-weaver-book-coaching (Story Weaver Book Coaching )for memoirists, thought leaders, and creative entrepreneurs at the beginning of their writing journey. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling (Facebook), and https://www.facebook.com/groups/4429930243750952 (join our vibrant listeners' community).
Our Story There’s a long, strange tradition in Irish mythology and folklore in which a powerful man tries to steal a valuable cow from an old woman (cailleach). Maybe it’s not so strange… It’s just one more example of how independent older women are considered a threat to the status quo. Marisa Goudy tells the story of Mona, the Cailleach who lived upon a hill that bore her name (Cnoc na Móna/Knocknamona). The original tale, found in a footnote in an 1860 publication of the Ossianic Society, a translation of a medieval Irish manuscript called the Imtheacht na Tromdhaimhe, includes few details. Marisa’s version imagines a new ending for tale that originally ends in a wise woman’s murder and the slaughter of a sacred cow. Our Guest Lee Rankin is a farmer and founder of https://applehillfarmnc.com/ (Apple Hill Farm), a successful and award-winning first-generation farm in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina. She is an advocate for farmers through her leadership and involvement at a local and state level. She speaks, teaches and consults frequently as a first-generation woman farmer on the topic of alpacas, entrepreneurship, and the benefits of diversifying your farm portfolio through agritourism. Lee is the author of https://amzn.to/3BwPtp6 (Cookin' Up a Storm, The Life and Recipes of Annie Johnson) now in its second edition. She is currently looking for a home for her memoir, Farm Family, the story of her journey of starting Apple Hill Farm as a solo Mom. Our Conversation The power of being a woman with animals and land. In Lee’s experience where the majority of farmers are men, she’s so aware of the feminine expression of her farming, including a spiritual, sacred sense of “knowing.” Choosing when to preserve and when to innovate, as storytellers and as famers. Preserving the Randall Lineback breed of cattle; there are only 1000 across the US. Lee’s story of moving to what would become her alpaca farm in Appalachia with her one year-old son and a golden retriever. Stories of animal rescues, and also of animal passages. A powerful reframe on death and how this story could have ended as the original version did, with the death of Mona and the cow. Our desire to sanitize the death parts and give everyone a happy ending. This episode pairs so well with https://knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/boinn-remembered-laura-murphy (Laura Murphy’s story of the goddess Boinn) who was closely associated with cattle and the concept of imbas forosnai, the inspiration that illuminates. (S.2 Ep.7).
Our Music Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/billyandbeth.com (billyandbeth.com) Join Us in the Heroine's KnotThe Heroines' Knot is an online community for creative creatures on the quest for self-expression & collective renewal. https://my.captivate.fm/www.marisagoudy.com/heroines-knot (Learn more and join us.) 1:1 Coaching Opportunities Marisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines (Healing for Heroines) packages. She also offers https://www.marisagoudy.com/story-weaver-book-coaching (Story Weaver Book Coaching )for memoirists, thought leaders, and creative entrepreneurs at the beginning of their writing journey. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling (Facebook), and https://www.facebook.com/groups/4429930243750952 (join our vibrant listeners' community).
Our Story This original story of the Irish goddess Bóinn was written by Laura Murphy and is being offered for the first time here on KnotWork Storytelling. Laura takes what we have from the medieval manuscripts from the Christian monasteries and then follows her own divine inspiration, or the imbas forosnai you’ll hear so much about in our conversation. If you hear a phrase that plucks at the strings of memory, know that Laura has woven in a few lines from other great Irish writers who have inspired her, who have offered their imbas, including W.B. Yeats, George Russell (also known as AE), Ella Young, Padraig Pearse & Sinéad O’Connor. Our Guest Laura Murphy is an activist, healer and Poet in Residence for Herstory; the powerful movement in Ireland telling stories of modern, historic and mythical women. Laura is a passionate campaigner for Ireland’s Mother and Baby home survivors and other issues surrounding equality, environmental and social healing including the recent successful campaign to make Brigid’s Day a national public holiday in Ireland. Laura’s work is centered around the ancient Irish poetic practice of “Imbas Forosnai,” which means “Inspiration that Illuminates.” Comparable to the Buddhist concept of Enlightenment” or contemporary “Flow-State,” Imbas Forosnai is said to be a gift of the Goddesses Bóinn and Brigid. It was a practice mastered by the ancient poets of Ireland to bring truth to power and healing to society. Our Conversation The long legacy of patriarchal suppression of the feminine that appears in Bóinn’s story, just as it did in the story of Eve and Mary Magdalene. There’s punishment for “tasting wisdom.” How did these stories change our understanding of the feminine across centuries? Laura’s experience with Lyme disease as a “lived experience of Bóinn’s ordeal.” Experiences in the dark chambers - Bóinn in Newgrange, Marisa’s experience at Oweynagat (the “Cave of Cats” at Rathcroghan in County Roscommon, which is said to be the birthplace of the goddess Morrigan). The spark of Imbas comes in the deepest, darkest spaces just as alchemy, the creation/discovery of the golden light, happens in the power of beholding the dark. Laura’s first deep experience with Imbas Forosnai: A sacred pilgrimage route that connects Brigid’s birth and death place and spans from Dundalk, the Hill of Slane, Tara, and Kildare. In a mystical experience as she crossed the River Boyne, Laura felt the gift of poetry flow through her.
An Invitation to Go Deeper into Bóinn’s Origins & Mythology In our conversation, Laura mentions her dear friend Anthony Murphy who has written a monograph that compiles all known references to Bóinn called “Bóinn: the Goddess of the River Boyne and The Milky Way.” It presents a full and untainted account of the mythology behind her. Also available is a prose-poetry masterpiece he wrote in a state of Imbas flow, inspired by Bóinn called Return to Segais. Laura had the honor of proof-reading both. In turn, she says, these books were instrumental in her connection with Bóinn and in Her healing. Both available at http://www.mythicalireland.com (www.mythicalireland.com) Our Music Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/billyandbeth.com (billyandbeth.com) Join Marisa in the Heroine's KnotThe Heroines' Knot is an online community for creative creatures on the quest for self-expression & collective renewal. https://my.captivate.fm/www.marisagoudy.com/heroines-knot (Learn more and join us.) 1:1 Coaching Opportunities Marisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines (Healing for Heroines) packages. She also...
Our Story The tale of Suibhne Geilt or “Mad Sweeney” comes to us from a medieval Irish manuscript and is sourced as far back as the 9th century. A warrior king driven mad by a saint’s curse, Sweeney spends years wandering Ireland, never able to rest or find a home. Marisa Goudy’s version of the tale is inspired by Seamus Heaney’s translation of the epic poem, https://bookshop.org/a/832/9780374518943 (Sweeney Astray.) Our Guest Dr. Michaelene Ruhl has been a psychotherapist in private practice for over 14 years and is the founder of Constellation Healing Arts where she holds safe and sacred space for people experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, and other life challenges. She also supports folks who have experienced plant medicine journeys via integration sessions. This year, Michaelene is launching the Sacred Immersion Training™ Program, which offers Healing Professionals the skills and insights they need in order to hold safe and sacred for themselves and others, particularly on plant medicine journeys. To learn more about Michaelene and her offerings, visit her website: http://www.constellationhealingarts.com (www.constellationhealingarts.com) Find Michaelene on https://www.facebook.com/dragonflyjourneys (Facebook) and on https://www.instagram.com/drmichaelenepsyd/ (Instagram). Our Conversation Michaelene, a psychologist and sacred healer, is like Saint Moling who welcomes Sweeney at the end of our tale. As a healer, you can’t save anyone, but you can hold their experience. The experiences of modern warriors and the difficult return home for veterans. Clinical trials for veterans with PTSD that include psychedelics Michaelene’s own journey with sacred plant medicine The story takes place in the period when Christianity began to eclipse paganism and the “old ways” of the Celtic, earth-based faith. We’re at another moment of great chance when it comes to faith and belief. At this moment, when we move away from organized religion, we can create a new relationship with our bodies, the land, and with the plants. Sweeney is a violent man who embodies “toxic masculinity.” And yet, he is also the sovereign of the land who is trying to fulfill the duty as king. Michaelene’s sacred blessing: We don’t have to take our journeys alone. We are far greater than any suffering we could perceive, endure, or experiences
Our Music Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/billyandbeth.com (billyandbeth.com) Join Us in the Heroine's KnotThe Heroines' Knot is an online community for creative creatures on the quest for self-expression & collective renewal. https://my.captivate.fm/www.marisagoudy.com/heroines-knot (Learn more and join us.) 1:1 Coaching Opportunities Marisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines (Healing for Heroines) packages. She also offers https://www.marisagoudy.com/story-weaver-book-coaching (Story Weaver Book Coaching )for memoirists, thought leaders, and creative entrepreneurs at the beginning of their writing journey. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling (Facebook), and jhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/4429930243750952 (oin our vibrant listeners' community).
Our Story A Irish sovereignty goddess whose origins lie with the mythical Tuatha Dé Danann, Áine is also a sun deity, a bean sidhe (woman of the Sí), and fairy queen. Our guest Jen Murphy comes to KnotWork with a collection of Áine tales. In a story from the mythological period, Áine has an ill-fated meeting with the unjust king Aillil Ólomm, who strips the land bare and threatens the goddess. Later, Áine is also found in a 14th century tale of Gerald, Earl of Desmond, also known as “The Wizard Earl.” Finally, a story collected in 1938 by the Irish Folklore Commission about a wise woman named Áine with two daughters who refuse to follow their mother’s marital advice, each with disastrous results. Our Guest Jen Murphy is the creator of Celtic Embodiment, a cutting-edge modality that fuses the ancient wisdom of Celtic Mythology with the emerging field of Feminine Embodiment Coaching to transform modern life for women. Jen is a certified Feminine Embodiment Coach and holds a degree in Medieval Irish & Celtic Studies and an M.A. in the Anthropology of Development. Coming from a lineage of storytellers and wisdom keepers on her maternal line, Jen is fascinated by the natural coalescence between our ancestral myths and our bodies as a potent brew to reclaim our sovereign power. Find Jen at https://www.celticembodiment.com/ (www.celticembodiment.com/) and on Instagram: @celticembodiment Our Conversation The ancient Celtic Sovereignty myth: the divine marriage (the banais ríghi). When the Sovereignty goddess unites with the king, she expects fir flaithemon, the prince’s truth. A worthy ruler needs to be just, truthful, and discerning. Parallels to Sumerian tales of Inanna and her partners. The importance of reciprocity - between people and land, between sovereignty goddess and king The ways that religion and politics collude together and exploit the land Connections to Arthurian Grail legend and “The Elucidation,”a tale that describes the rape of the Well Maidens that leads to the closing of the wells and creation of the Wasteland. Hospitality as a key aspect of mythology and culture Ireland as a “goddess obsessed” island. And yet, with all of the divine feminine magic, all of the Mother Goddess worship, it was not a Utopia for women. There were ways in which the coming of the church offered a haven for women, and monasteries became places of learning. Jen’s personal story of what it meant to see all part of herself, integrate the energy of midsummer, the deepest energy of the grandmothers, a death of a part of the self, and rebirth and integration
Our Music Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/billyandbeth.com (billyandbeth.com) Join Us in the Heroine's KnotThe Heroines' Knot is an online community for creative creatures on the quest for self-expression & collective renewal. https://my.captivate.fm/www.marisagoudy.com/heroines-knot (Learn more and join us.) 1:1 Coaching Opportunities Marisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines (Healing for Heroines) packages. She also offers https://www.marisagoudy.com/story-weaver-book-coaching (Story Weaver Book Coaching )for memoirists, thought leaders, and creative entrepreneurs at the beginning of their writing journey. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling (Facebook), and jhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/4429930243750952 (oin our...
Our Story Storyteller Maura McMahon offers us a clip from her show, Launching Ships: A User's Guide for Your Face. She took to the stage at Green Kill Art Center in Kingston, NY in spring 2022 and was accompanied by musician David Gonzalez. You’ll hear the events in the final moments of the Trojan War, as that infamous horse full of Spartan warriors is allowed into the city gates after a ten-year battle. Our Guest Maura McMahon is a storyteller and spoken word poet whose collection of Irish tales, pirate adventures, and women's sovereignty songs have entranced and empowered audiences across regional venues in New York’s Hudson Valley for over 15 years. As a character performer, Maura has embodied Grace O'Malley, and the Grey Sea Hag as well as Hippolyta the Amazonian Queen. My family most loves seeing Maura when she appears as Mrs. Claus of the Hudson Valley Our Conversation Marisa and Maura discuss what it means to tell the story of a character who inhabits a space in “Myth with a Capital M” and they explore: Telling this story was a creative leap for Maura, a storyteller most at home with Celtic tales. Two thirds of this story comes from the original sources, including Virgil and Homer, and one third is Maura’s creative invention. Ultimately, it is a reclaiming of Helen’s story told through her own eyes. Helen was renowned for her beauty, but what made Helen beautiful? People saw in her what they needed to. Helen played a pivotal role in so many men’s stories, and yet she retained her sovereignty, her power, and her sense of self. How this story emerged through conversations with a goddess and building a relationship with a character, and what that meant to Maura as storyteller and as an individual going through her own process. What it means to tell a story outside of your own lineage and your usual source material. During the creative process, Maura asked, “Who am I to tell the story of a Greek goddess?”
https://youtu.be/FzO2-sLJ-5s (Watch Maura’s entire show on Green Kill’s YouTube Channel. ) You can also hear Maura’s story of Máire Rua O’Brien, a 17th century Irish heroine inhttps://player.captivate.fm/episode/f7ff8601-71a3-4ba7-a33e-2fc4d70887c7 (, “A Most Ferocious Lady of the Castle,”) episode 3 of season 1 of KnotWork Storytelling. Our Music Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/billyandbeth.com (billyandbeth.com) Join Us in the Heroine's KnotThe Heroines' Knot is an online community for creative creatures on the quest for self-expression & collective renewal. https://my.captivate.fm/www.marisagoudy.com/heroines-knot (Learn more and join us.) 1:1 Coaching Opportunities Marisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines (Healing for Heroines) packages. She also offers https://www.marisagoudy.com/story-weaver-book-coaching (Story Weaver Book Coaching )for memoirists, thought leaders, and creative entrepreneurs at the beginning of their writing journey. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling (Facebook), and jhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/4429930243750952 (oin our vibrant listeners' community).
Our Story Probably the precursor to the King Arthur tales, the story of Tristan and Isolde includes star-crossed lovers, castles and the wilds, as well as questions of loyalty, duty, and truth. The versions we can access today are set in a fractionated England in the time after Roman rule. Ireland, still unconquered just across the sea, is key to the plot as well as the spirit of the saga. Our guest Sophie Strand is working on an epic novel about Tristan and Isolde. She ushers us through the relationships, betrayals, passions, and tragedies that are part of this long, episodic, non-linear story that refuses to conform to a textual, climactic narrative. Our Guest Sophie Strand is a writer based in the Hudson Valley who focuses on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. Her first book of essays The Flowering Wand: Rewilding the Sacred Masculine will be published by Inner Traditions in Fall 2022 and is available for pre-order. Her eco-feminist historical fiction reimagining of the gospels The Madonna Secret will also be published by Inner Traditions in Spring 2023. You can subscribe for my newsletter at sophiestrand.substack.com. Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cosmogyny/ (@cosmogyny) and at www.sophiestrand.com. Our Conversation Sophie speaks mythologically, calling on stories and characters as diverse as David and Saul, Joseph and the sons of Jacob, Demeter and Persephone and more. This novel about Tristan and Isolde, set in Cornwall, perhaps as far back as the Bronze Age, is still a long way off from publication. Sophie’s original inspiration: the Ridley Scott film version of the Tristan and Isolde story at age 12. (A remarkable parallel to 12 year-old Marisa falling in love with Ireland thanks to the Tom Cruise movie, Far and Away!) Joseph Campbell thought of Tristan as epitome of the hero, but Sophie sees Tristan’s constant attempts to escape the Hero's Journey The trauma inherent in the hero’s journey and Sophie’s quest to diversify it, rather than eradicate it completely. Her work resonates with Marisa’s Heroine’s Knot and the desire to honor the life that happens even when we do not cross the threshold of typical adventure. The continuum between potion and poison and how dosage determines what is medicinal and what is deadly. The “mycelial intelligence of the internet” and how Sophie and Marisa found each other through an Irish organization called https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazery/ (The Trailblazery), though they live only about 7 miles apart in the Hudson Valley. Metaphorical and mythic resonance with fungi which confuse our concept of species and relationship in compelling, necessary ways. Book recommendation: https://bookshop.org/a/832/9780525510321 (Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life.) How does our understanding of individuality, gender, and romantic love change when we see ourselves as https://cisindus.org/2021/02/10/holobionts-a-new-theory-that-shatters-the-myth-of-biological-individual/ (holobiont)? There’s an unfathomable biodiversity of knowledge, of ecosystems, and in our own guts. Sophie explores this idea further in the forthcoming https://bookshop.org/a/832/9781644115961 (The Flowering Wand: Rewilding the Sacred Masculine).
Our Music Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/billyandbeth.com (billyandbeth.com) Join Us in the Heroine's KnotThe Heroines' Knot is an online community for creative creatures on the quest for self-expression & collective renewal. https://my.captivate.fm/www.marisagoudy.com/heroines-knot (Learn more and join us.) 1:1 Coaching Opportunities Marisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines
Our Story You must meet Maeve, the Celtic Magdalen, the heroine of the four novels in Elizabeth Cunningham’s The Maeve Chronicles. From her beginnings on the Celtic Island of Women Tír Na mBán, to “Druid School” on the Isle of Mona, and then on to Rome, the Galilee, southern France, and then back to Britain when Queen Boudicca of the Iceni was battling for her tribe and her sovereignty, Maeve has see it all. Her sensibilities are both ancient and modern, and make her one of fiction’s most powerful, enduring characters. Elizabeth reads excerpts from Magdalen Rising, in which Maeve meets the Cailleach and gets her first sex-ed lesson from her warrior witch mothers and from Red Robed Priestess, the final novel in the series. Our Guest Elizabeth Cunningham is a novelist, poet, musician, and counselor based in New York’s Hudson Valley. She is the author and illustrator of The Book of Madge, a graphic novel, and the source of her best known work, The Maeve Chronicles. Her earlier novels include The Wild Mother, The Return of the Goddess, and How to Spin Gold. Her debut mystery novel Murder at the Rummage Sale and its sequel All the Perils of this Night (which can also be read as a stand-alone thriller), and most of her previous novels, will be reprinted by Monkfish Book Publishing in 2023 and 2024. Visit Elizabeth’s website: https://elizabethcunninghamwrites.com/ (https://elizabethcunninghamwrites.com/) https://bookshop.org/lists/fiction-from-ireland-and-the-celtic-world (Buy The Maeve Chronicles.) Our Conversation When I picked up the first “Maeve book” over a decade ago, I felt an instant jolt of recognition. I felt the same when I met Maeve’s creator, Elizabeth Cunningham at a writing workshop a few years later. Since then, Elizabeth has become a mentor and guide to me, helping me birth my own book (and all of my creative endeavors!) In our chat, we explore: * “Sovereignty, Maeve, belonging to yourself. Your own terms. Sovereignty is your birthright and your inheritance.” * “A story is true as long as it’s well told”: the power of contemporary fiction to shape the imaginal realm. * How Maeve’s story fits other beliefs about Mary Magdalene as disciple or as keeper of the divine blood line. * Maeve’s origin story and how she was born of the need for a “human goddess” * The romanticization of Celtic culture and Elizabeth’s reservations about writing about the Celts once she learned of their brutality and penchant for head hunting * Representations of different kinds of sovereignty in women: as lover, healer, mother, disciple, brothel owner * Sex work, prostitution, and priestesshood * Maeve’s first experience as a healer: a companion’s botched abortion * What it’s like to create a character who walks with you for more than 30 years: Elizabeth calls Maeve her Best Imaginary Friend Forever
Our Music Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/billyandbeth.com (billyandbeth.com) Join Us in the Heroine's KnotThe Heroines' Knot is an online community for creative creatures on the quest for self-expression & collective renewal. https://my.captivate.fm/www.marisagoudy.com/heroines-knot (Learn more and join us.) 1:1 Coaching Opportunities Marisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines (Healing for Heroines) packages. She also offers https://www.marisagoudy.com/story-weaver-book-coaching (Story Weaver Book Coaching )for memoirists, thought leaders, and creative entrepreneurs at the beginning of their writing journey. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty...
OUR STORY Your KnotWork Storytelling host, Marisa Goudy, reads a brief excerpt from her novel-in-progress, Above In the Bog. You meet two women of first century Ireland, Móna and Síle, who are out collecting tansy on a dark moon summer night. Their mission: gather the herbs to help a woman in their village abort an unwanted child. OUR EXPLORATION Marisa wrote this section of the book sometime last year, but it is all the more timely as the US Supreme Court overturns Roe Vs. Wade and the right to abortion is in peril across much of the country. Marisa explores: The 2018 referendum in Ireland that repealed the eighth amendment and gave pregnant people the right to abortion in Ireland The 12th century Saint Hildegard of Bingen whose extensive writings describe how herbs can be used to induce abortion (and heal many other maladies) Modern herbal practices, which are similar to the practices from 1000 years ago Her own story, including the safe use of Mifepristone from a local Planned Parenthood Lughnasadh and the riddle of the selfless, sacrificial mother archetype: August 1 is the ancient Irish festival founded by the Celtic Sun God Lugh, in honor of his foster mother Tailtiu. She died after exhausting herself clearing the plane of Ireland.
Our Music Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/billyandbeth.com (billyandbeth.com) Join Us in the Heroine's KnotThe Heroines' Knot is an online community for creative creatures on the quest for self-expression & collective renewal. Learn more and join us. 1:1 Coaching Opportunities Marisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines (Healing for Heroines) packages. She also offers https://www.marisagoudy.com/story-weaver-book-coaching (Story Weaver Book Coaching )for memoirists, thought leaders, and creative entrepreneurs at the beginning of their writing journey. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling (Facebook), and jhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/4429930243750952 (oin our vibrant listeners' community).
Our Story “Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor” appear in a ballad from the 17th century that has been passed across Scotland, England, Ireland, Canada, and the US for centuries. Marisa Goudy’s retelling of the tale is inspired by a version collected in the 1930s Irish Schools Collection of Folklore, found at https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5008982/4973680 (Duchas.ie.) It’s the tale of a love triangle with a bloody end. It’s the tale of a heroine caught at the crossroads. Our Exploration This final episode of season 1 of KnotWork Storytelling is a solo exploration of Fair Elen’s story. Marisa explores the history of the ballad and describes her own journey to finding the song: a failed attempt at finding a source for stories of Elen of the Ways, a figure purported to be a Celtic goddess of the crossroads. Marisa also examines the multiple layers of meaning associated with “sovereignty” and how her relationship with her 2020 book, The Sovereignty Knot, is a prime example of how any author or artist’s relationship with their creation changes over time. An Invitation to Meet the Heroine Within You In May 2022, Marisa is offering a free online workshop, The Heroine At the Crossroads: Meet the Heroine Within You & Discover a New Discernment Tool that Will Help You Meet Any Challenging Situation. For details and to find a workshop date and time that works for your time zone, visit http://www.marisagoudy.com/crossroads (www.marisagoudy.com/crossroads) During our hour together, you’ll learn about the qualities that define a heroine and meet the archetypes of Sovereignty. They help you understand that there are countless ways to be a heroine and that there are always new ways to look at and approach the tangles of life. You’ll walk away with this new tool that will help you look at the energy you bring to every decision and will help you choose how to respond to whatever comes your way. Our MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental Duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called The College Groves. Find out about their music and shows at: https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/billyandbeth.com (billyandbeth.com) Discover, Heal & Write Your Own Stories: Work with MarisaBook a https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines (Healing for Heroines) session: a unique blend of energy medicine, intuitive guidance, and the language of archetypes and mythology to help you work through the tangles of life so you can weave a new story. Explore Marisa's work and get a copy of The Sovereignty Knot: https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling (Facebook), and jhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/4429930243750952 (oin our vibrant listeners' community). Join the free Heroine at the Crossroads class in May: http://www.marisagoudy.com/crossroads (www.marisagoudy.com/crossroads) RuuPEhH9wOXwbWyweCrH
Our StoryOur guest Seán Pádraig O’Donoghue tells the story of his legendary ancestor, Donal O'Donoghue. O’Donoghue Mór was a great warrior, a generous chieftain, a man who kept the Old Ways. He conspired with the Otherworld and became an initiate of the deepest mysteries and the forbidden knowledge. As a result of showing his powers to his wife, O’Donoghue Mór was pulled back to the Otherworld. But, the stories say that he and his royal host rise every seven years on Bealtaine (May 1) and, when a member of the O’Donoghue family comes to their chieftain in times of great need, he will always offer his aid. Our GuestSeán Pádraig O’Donoghue is a poet, herbalist, writer, and teacher, and an initiated Priest in two traditions. He lives in the mountains of Western Maine. The Otherworld Well Hedge School offers weekly classes that weave together magic, herbalism, folklore, ecology, and history. His second book, Courting the Wild Queen, will be available from Ritona Press. Visit Seán’s website and on https://www.facebook.com/greenmansean (Facebook ) Our ConversationSeán and Marisa connect over their love of Irish mythology, culture, and history. They are also both children of Massachusetts whose ancestors are several generations removed from Ireland. In the course of their conversation, they explore: Bealtaine, the Celtic festival of fertility celebrated on May 1 and its significance on the Celtic Wheel of the Year A vision Seán had at Pulnabrone, the passage tomb in the Burren in Co. Clare. Archaeologists know this was a burial ground; Seán saw that this was a place where people came to speak to the dead at Samhain, but also a portal that called people together at Bealtaine so they could call those same spirits into the land of the living. There is but one gate, and we move back and forth through it. When we understand the nature of the gate, the ancestors and beloved dead are never far from us. A “chemical cypher” in the blossom of the whitethorn or hawthorn that echoes the cycles of fertility and decay present in the the human body. Marisa shares a story of the hawthorn bush that guards the cave at Rathcroghan in County Roscommon, Oweynagat. The power of being in both worlds, honoring the past as well as the realities and struggles of the contemporary world. The worlds keep reflecting one each other and asking us to see our reflections on both sides. Seán explores what it means to be an American living according to wisdom of the Irish ancestors with words from Thoreau: “Nevertheless, our wild apple is wild only like myself, perchance, who belong not to the aboriginal race here, but have strayed into the woods from the cultivated stock.” It is important to honor the place and tradition of the ancestors, but to disown the heritage because of the “accident of the time and place of birth” would also dishonor the tradition. The links between wildness and sovereignty, an understanding that draws distinction between being an autocrat or someone obsessed with individualism
Our MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental Duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called The College Groves. Find out about their music and shows at: https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/billyandbeth.com (billyandbeth.com) Discover, Heal & Write Your Own Stories: Work with MarisaBook a https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines (Healing for Heroines) session: a unique blend of energy medicine, intuitive guidance, and the language of archetypes and mythology to help you work through the tangles of life so you can weave a new story. Explore Marisa's work and get a copy of The Sovereignty Knot: https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/...
Our StoryCana Cludhmor was a banfhile, an Irish woman poet of great renown. We know her story from only a few lines in Imtheacht na Tromdháimhe or https://www.google.com/books/edition/Imtheacht_Na_Tromdhaimhe_Or_The_Proceedi/KdWHNgAACAAJ?hl=en (The Proceedings of the Great Bardic Institution,) found in the fourteenth century Book of Lismore. Only mentioned briefly in the manuscript, we know that Cana Cludmor walks away from a dissatisfying marriage, and finds herself at a beach where the wind is playing in the sinews of a whale skeleton. She falls asleep to this otherworldly music, and when her husband discovers her and hears the lovely sound, he is inspired to construct the first harp. This retelling by Marisa Goudy stays true to the original, but imagines the characters’ motivation (and adds the bit about the poet’s curse, the bloodied hands, and the healing at the end). Our GuestMaureen Buscareno is a harper, a music educator, a podcaster, and the founder of https://www.moonoverthetrees.com/ (Moon Over the Trees Music & Theater Productions.) Maureen received her master’s degree in Ethnomusicology from Ireland’s University of Limerick. Passionate about bringing music to schools and to the community, Maureen received her master’s in music education from Columbia University. You can hear more from Maureen on her podcasts: https://www.moonoverthetrees.com/podcast (HarpSong), https://www.moonoverthetrees.com/beat-your-heart-out (Beat Your Heart Out), and https://www.moonoverthetrees.com/theatre-aesthetics (Theatre Aesthetics). Our ConversationMarisa and Maureen connect as two American women with Irish heritage who both received master’s degrees in Ireland at about the the same time (though it took a https://hudsonvalleywomeninbusiness.com/ (Hudson Valley Women In Business) gathering in 2021 to get them together!). In their discussion, they explore: The work of world-renowned composer and multi-instrumentalist Mícheal Ó Súilleabhain has been a profound influence on Maureen. He was her thesis advisor at UCL and reveled in the campus’s location on the River Shannon, likening students and faculty to ancient Druids becoming one with the land, landscape, sounds and sights of nature. https://apoemforireland.rte.ie/shortlist/fill-aris/ (“Fill Arís,” a poem by Seán Ó Ríordán) that invites us back to the Irish language (even if it was a language spoken by distant ancestors) Marisa is dedicated to honoring the source of the story, which appears in an 1860 publication from the Ossianic Society. Modern versions of the story have turned the Cana Cludhmor, the banfhile (woman poet), into a “Celtic goddess of inspiration” and credited her with being the inventor of the harp. This https://lairbhan.blogspot.com/2021/09/cana-cludhmor-inventing-irish-goddess.html (article by Morgan Daimler )traces the potential causes for the modern revisions of the story. The Celtic music revival in 1960s Three kinds of traditional Irish music: celebration, lullabies, laments The sean-nós tradition, unaccompanied Irish language singing For further information about the Irish harp and its centuries of tradition, seek out http://www.annheymann.com/biography.htm (Anne Heymann) and https://hurrellharp.com/ (Nancy Hurrell) The Trailblazery, which offers the online https://www.thetrailblazery.com/scoilscairte (Scoil Scairte) Irish language and culture program
Our MusicMusic at the start of the show is by the wonderful Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental Duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called The College Groves. Find out about their music and shows at: billyandbeth.com Discover, Heal & Write Your Own Stories: Work with MarisaBook a https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines (Healing for Heroines) session: a unique blend of energy medicine, intuitive guidance, and the language of archetypes and mythology to help you...
Our Story Inanna, Goddess of the Upperworld, is at the core of a 6,000 year old myth from ancient Sumer. Upon the request of her sister Ereshkigal, Inanna pays a visit to the Underworld. As she passes through each of the seven gates, more of her symbols of power, intellect, and wealth are stripped away. Upon arrival, Inanna is sentenced to death by her sister Ereshkigal. As is the way of myth, death is intricately connected to rebirth. Through the intercession of her father, Enki, God of Wisdom and Light, Inanna is revived and ascends to the Upperworld, renewed and transformed. At least… those are the basics. Pearl’s retelling of the story is a deep dive into contemporary dreams and timeless truths about the emerging of the feminine and the merging with the masculine. Our Guest Pearl Gregor is an explorer and a seeker. She is a writer, dream coach, story teller, author of the three books in the series Dreams Along the Way, and an international public speaker. Pearl is a farmer, grandmother, a blogger, and a Crone of wisdom. Join Pearl to explore the deep mysteries of dreams, psyche and soul. You can read her books, or join her in her latest passion, a Dream Readers’ Myth Circle. Find Pearl at http://www.dreamsalongtheway.com (www.DreamsAlongTheWay.com) and on https://www.facebook.com/pecgregor (Facebook ) andhttps://www.instagram.com/gregor.pearl/ ( Instagram) Our Conversation This story of Inanna is woven with seven years of dreams that came to Pearl at midlife. We explore: Pearl had never heard of Inanna when images from this myth came to her in dreams. The book https://amzn.to/3jjvHn3 (Descent to the Goddess: A Way of Initiation for Women Sylvia Perera) appeared as a guide and confirmation. We need both the light and the dark, the masculine and the feminine, though the patriarchal mindset has shaped our perspective of what the feminine should be The role of “strange women” in a woman’s dreamlife; the integration of the “strange” parts of the self and the movement into circles of women The process of “birthing a new world,” as described by Jean Shinoda Bolen in https://amzn.to/3JjJDrH (Moving Toward the Millionth Circle) A perspective on “intersectionality”: Pearl’s experience with a diverse group of folks in one of her dream groups in which they explored the universal language of dreams The power of “collective dreaming.” “Were we living in an aboriginal community in these difficult times, we’d be getting together over the breakfast table to discuss our dreams.” Talking about dreams and mythology can guide the way. Learn more about Marisa’s online community, the https://www.marisagoudy.com/sovereign-writers (Sovereign Writers Knot) More of Pearl and Marisa in the conversation series, https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyZbN9gz4oA4mLR4bbP8nnFV9X2pyPeHy (Dream, Sovereignty, and Wise Woman Ways) As Pearl says, “Skip Descartes and what you learned in school, there is nothing logical about rebirthing an entire universe.”
Our Music Music at the start of the show is by the wonderful Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental Duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called The College Groves. Find out about their music and shows at: billyandbeth.com Connect With Your Own Stories and Work with MarisaBook a Healing for Heroines session: a unique blend of energy medicine, intuitive guidance, and the language of archetypes and mythology to help you work through the tangles of life so you can weave a new story. Explore Marisa's work and get a copy of The Sovereignty Knot : www.marisagoudy.com Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling (Facebook), and jhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/4429930243750952 (oin our vibrant listeners' community).
Our StoryAt a céilidh, a home-based social gathering in the Highlands of Scotland, a young man is asked to follow the custom of sharing a song or a story. He doesn't think he has anything to offer, but then he sets off on an incredible journey across the loch. This is a story of gender fluidity, transformation, and community. Our Guest Dr Michael Newton, who holds a Ph.D. in Celtic Studies from the University of Edinburgh. He has written many books and articles about Gaelic culture and history and is a leading authority on Scottish Gaelic heritage in North America. Michael is the founder of thehttps://www.hiddenglenfolk.org/ ( Hidden Glen Folk School). Find Michael’shttps://independent.academia.edu/MichaelNewton ( scholarly articles) here. Our ConversationThis story is hundreds of years old, but it invites us to discuss some of the most important (and challenging) issues of today: Gender identity and gender fluidity Issues of toxic masculinity and why this is particularly important to discuss in relation to Irish- and Scottish-American communities where expectations of “manly men” and military prowess twist both the understanding of history and contemporary culture The long legacy of alcoholism and abuse that are part of the Scottish and Irish communities The legacy of imperialism and colonialism
Our MusicMusic on the show is by the wonderful Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental Duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called The College Groves. Find out about their music and shows at: http://billyandbeth.com/ (billyandbeth.com) Connect With Your Own Stories and Work with MarisaBook ahttps://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines ( Healing for Heroines) session: a unique blend of energy medicine, intuitive guidance, and the language of archetypes and mythology to help you work through the tangles of life so you can weave a new story. Explore Marisa's work and get a copy of The Sovereignty Knot : https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling (Facebook), and join our vibranthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/knotworkpodcast ( listeners' community).
Our Story This story, written by Marisa Goudy, is inspired by a piece simply named “A Story,” found in the Irish Schools’ Folklore Collection from the 1930s. It was collected by a student named Annie McLaughlin, as told by her father John Joe McLaughlin for St. Mary’s National School in Buncrana in County Donegal. https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4493759/4417403 (The original tale, found at Duchas.ie, )offers a retelling of a traditional story of three women who have been disfigured by endless work, carding, spinning, and weaving wool. It’s the story of a “useless girl who lived happily ever after.” In this version, Marisa imagines the scene in which the father, John Joe, tells the story to his daughter Annie. There really was https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/weaving-a-future-from-old-ways-in-donegal-1.4739689 (a woollen mill in Donegal in the 1930s )where they wove carpets for Buckingham Palace! In this retelling, details have been added to the original fairytale, which is an adaptation of https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm014.html (a Brothers Grimm story.) Our Guest Nicole Burgess is a clinically trained Soul-Led Leadership Coach for ambitious highly sensitive professional women leaders. She is also the host of Soulfilled Sisterhood podcast and founder of the Self-Care Summit: Improve Your Bottom Line and Your Personal Life. Over the last seventeen years she has coached, guided and collaborated with over a 1,000 women. She helps women end overwhelm and self-doubt, so they can lead with calm, confidence, and connection. Learn more about Nicole on her website, http://www.nicoleburgesscoaching.com (nicoleburgesscoaching.com). Connect with Nicole on https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleburgesscoach/, (LinkedIn) or on https://www.facebook.com/NicoleBurgessCoaching (Facebook) Our Conversation In addition to being a coach and a podcaster, Nicole is a weaver and handcrafts have long been part of her life. We call together these threads in our conversation: - The process of weaving itself and the modern attempts to bring back lost arts - What it means to be "useful" or "useless" - How we celebrate the time it takes to make something by hand now, but how this tedious work was a burden to women in the past - How to escape the projections of others; the only evil in this story are other people’s expectations - A story with an ambiguous ending in which the not-so-virtuous heroine was victorious - The way that modern, high-achieving women are troubled by similar outdated belief systems as are presented in the story - The power of “the stool” which appears repeatedly in the story: how to allow yourself to pause, and make a conscious decision from stillness rather than feeling we need to be constantly busy - Fiber and cloth offer a powerful set of metaphors, but we also celebrate the meditative practice of working with your hands. Contemporary research shows that dand crafting is a great way to deal with anxiety. - Fite fuaite: an Irish term meaning “interwoven or inextricably connected.” Manchán Magan, a teacher, broadcaster, and ambassador for the Irish language writes about the Irish words for weaving at https://www.making.ie/stories/irish-words-weaving (making.ie) - The final word from Nicole: trust the process, but also take your action steps
Our Music Music on the show is by the wonderful Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental Duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called The College Groves. Find out about their music and shows at: http://billyandbeth.com/ (billyandbeth.com) Connect With Your Own Stories and Work with Marisa Book ahttps://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines ( Healing for Heroines) session: a unique blend of energy medicine, intuitive guidance, and the language of archetypes and mythology to help you work through the tangles of life so you can weave a new...
Our Story Elizabeth des Roches tells her own story of La Quaintrelle and welcomes you to a gathering of four of the most elegant women you can imagine. This may seem like the stuff of fairy tales, but that doesn’t make this a children’s story. Ultimately, it's about calling in all aspects of the self and celebrating the power of delight and pleasure. Our Guest Elizabeth des Roches is a Creatrix, seeker, and entrepreneur who accompanies women as they learn to connect to high frequency energies and openly express themselves in life & business. She nurtures them at key moments in their spiritual evolution & provides beautifully practical ways to make their greatest desires real. She offers Weave Your World, a transformative private mentorship; performs intuitive Energetic Threads Readings and is writing Creatrix Energetics: An Interactive Sourcebook. Discover Elizabeth’s world at http://www.elizabethdesroches.com (www.elizabethdesroches.com) & sign up to receive her newsletter filled with insights & opportunities. Follow her on Instagram. Our Conversation This story traces elements of Elizabeth's own life, and also speaks to the experience of so many women moving through in their lifetimes. Together, we explore: - How to see the familiar trinity of the maiden, mother, and crone imagery in a new way - How so many stories are about fibers and threads, particularly The Fates who were so powerful when it came to determining life and death - The desire to reframe the stories that show wise, powerful women as ugly. Why do women have to be deformed in the process of creating realities? - Elizabeth's home in Brittany, France where faery and Celtic lore are so present and potent. The tale of Les Lavandières, the three Midnight Washerwomen who wash the shrouds of those who will die. - The gift of the three women in the story: Sovereignty, Love, Trust - A reframe on “luxury”: it’s not a yacht or golden table service. Instead luxury can be as simple as silence or sunshine. - The power of women and the salon across Europe, including in Ireland and France - You may be unfamiliar with the term la quaintrelle: A woman who emphasizes a life of passion expressed through personal style, leisurely pastimes, charm, and cultivation of life’s pleasures.
Our Music Music on the show is by the wonderful Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental Duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called The College Groves. Find out about their music and shows at: http://billyandbeth.com/ (billyandbeth.com) Connect With Your Own Stories and Work with Marisa Book a https://www.marisagoudy.com/healing-for-heroines (Healing for Heroines) session: a unique blend of energy medicine, intuitive guidance, and the language of archetypes and mythology to help you work through the tangles of life so you can weave a new story. Explore Marisa's work and get a copy of The Sovereignty Knot : https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling (Facebook), and join our vibranthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/knotworkpodcast ( listeners' community).
Our Story Irish mythology offers us a tale of a pagan hero named Oisín who left his companions, the warriors of the Fianna, and followed a fairy woman named Niamh to her home in Tír Na nÓg, the land of eternal youth. After three hundred years, Oisín returned to Ireland and found that a man named Saint Patrick had arrived and brought along a faith called Christianity that changed everything. The story of the relationship between Oisín and Patrick is inspired by Lady Augusta Gregory’s story from her 1904 book, Gods and Fighting Men. Lady Gregory, the famous folklorist of the Celtic Revival drew her inspiration from the tales found in Acallam na Senórach/Tales of the Elders of Ireland, which is a compilation of four different medieval Irish texts. This story is written by Marisa Goudy and performed by Kevin Michael Murphy. This retelling dares to soften the ending, focusing on the friendship that might have existed despite Oisín and Patrick’s religious differences and the way we still celebrate Ireland pre-Christian heritage rather than the usual bitter lament about the end of the magical Celtic world. Our Guest Kevin Michael Murphy is an actor and voice teacher based in New York City. As an actor Kevin has toured with the Broadway musical, The Book of Mormon. As a teacher, Kevin is the cofounder of the NYC Vocal Studio, and is currently on the voice faculty at NYU Steinhardt. Kevin's unique way of working with singers focuses on playfully exploring connections between the mind, the body, and the cultivation of one's artistic point of view. Kevin works with a variety of humans, some sing on Broadway in shows such as Wicked and Chicago, and others sing in karaoke bars and showers across America. And, of course, Kevin's confirmation name is Patrick. Find Kevin at www.NYCVocalStudio.com and at Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/nycvocalstudio/ (@NYCVocalStudio) and https://www.instagram.com/kevinmichaelmurphy/ (@KevinMichaelMurphy) Our Conversation Marisa and Kevin first met at Camp GLP (Yay, Good Life Project!) and instantly bonded over Irish music, theater, and the power of song. In this conversation they explore: The phrase from the Irish language, fite fuaite, which means interwoven and connected The enduring yet ephemeral nature of theater: e cannot hold onto a performance, but we can hold onto to a story The time magic of story: what it means to tell a story about a 1500 year old friendship for future listener Reflection on how time changes the nature of friendship and the shifts in relationships through the pandemic years The concept of the “Anam Cara,” and Irish phrase meaning “soul friend” which was brought to public consciousness with philosopher poet John O’Donoghue’s book of the same name Reflection on being Irish American Catholic kids and how that faith is part of our lineage rather than our lived lives Kevin’s several times great aunt Eileen Huban was starred on Broadway in Irish productions, most famously in David Belasco’s Dark Rosaleen in 1919
Our Music Music on the show is by the wonderful Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental Duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called The College Groves. Find out about their music and shows at: http://billyandbeth.com/ (billyandbeth.com) Connect With Your Own Stories and with Marisa’s Work Join Marisa’s online writing community, thehttps://www.marisagoudy.com/sovereign-writers ( Sovereign Writers’ Knot) Explore Marisa's work and get a copy of The Sovereignty Knot : https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling (Facebook), and join our vibranthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/knotworkpodcast ( listeners' community).
Our Story Leah and Rachel are two sisters from the Book of Genesis who were both married to the patriarch Jacob. Our Guest Blair Glaser is a writer, leadership consultant, and licensed therapist who has led many workshops for women, including "Women Writing to Change the World," at the renowned Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. These days, she works primarily with women executives on developing effective strategies and teams. As a writer she has been a correspondent and columnist for Playbill Online and a wellness columnist for Feminist.com. In addition to writing for a variety of online publications including Shondaland, Greatist, Best Self, and The Muse to name a few, her article "A Man Blatantly Stole My Ideas. My Reaction Surprised Me." was syndicated from Huffington Post. She's read stories live at events such as Read 650, Generation Women, and won a prize for doing so at The Woodstock Bookfest. You can learn more about Blair’s work at http://www.blairglaser.com/ (www.blairglaser.com). Find her at https://twitter.com/BlairGlaser (@blairglaser on) https://twitter.com/BlairGlaser (Twitter), https://www.instagram.com/blair_glaser/ (@Blair.Glaser on IG), and https://www.facebook.com/blair.glaser/ (on Facebook) Our Conversation Blair frames her tale of Leah and Rachel within the context of where she first engaged with this story: at a major Jewish conference in New York City where she was speaking about stereotypes about Jewish women in the media. An orthodox rabbi who preceded her on the stage told this Book of Genesis story and offered an interpretation: in relationships, we fall in love with Rachel (the ideal), but we end up married to Leah (the real human being). We also explore: Women in the Bible as “shadows” of women How to navigate relationships when they stop being sexy and how to forgive ourselves and our partners for being human Jane Austen and the “marriage industrial complex” over the ages What might be lost as we reject partnership because so many are rejecting monogamy What it takes to read between the lines of history to find the foremothers The focus on how we’ve come a long way, and that’s clear as Blair works with women leaders and watching them orient themselves toward a future of gender equity The secret of creative tension and how the true quest is to fight together, not in opposition
Our Music Music on the show is by the wonderful Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental Duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called The College Groves. Find out about their music and shows at: http://billyandbeth.com/ (billyandbeth.com) Connect With Your Own Stories and with Marisa’s Work Join Marisa’s online writing community, thehttps://www.marisagoudy.com/sovereign-writers ( Sovereign Writers’ Knot) Explore Marisa's work and get a copy of The Sovereignty Knot : https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling (Facebook), and join our vibranthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/knotworkpodcast ( listeners' community).
Our Story This is the story of Macha, a goddess, a fairy woman, a woman of the Sidhe, who took a human lover for a year. This story sets the stage for the greatest epic in Irish mythology, the Táin Bó Cúailnge. This story is often remembered for its curse, but really, it's the story of a birth. "The Birth of a Heroine" was written and performed by Marisa Goudy. Sources: https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T106500D.html (The Metrical Dindsheanchas), which means "the lore of places" in Middle Irish and includes texts from the 11th to 14th centuries. Our Guest Barb Buckner Suárez is a Health Educator specializing in pregnancy, birth, and parenting. She’s taught thousands of couples for over 20 years about the benefits of embracing the vulnerability that comes with becoming a parent. Barb’s a Lamaze-certified Childbirth Educator, a Fellow in the Academy of Certified Childbirth Educators, a Certified Becoming Us Facilitator, and Mentor for Becoming Us Facilitators. She’s also a professed “brain nerd” and holds a Masters Level Certificate in Interpersonal Neurobiology. Barb just launched her new podcast Birth Happens. It's yet another way she is supporting expecting and new families in the most important work they will ever do: raising the next generation. Our Conversation The way birth can feel “superhuman” and how it is even more remarkable than seeing a woman outrun the king’s fastest horses The symbolic power of cows and horses, particularly in the Celtic tradition and in relationship to birth The weaving of human, superhuman, and, as philosopher, writer, activist https://amzn.to/3tjJzSO (Bayo Akomolafe) calls it, the more-than-human world The brain science of “mommy brain” and how emotional and physical welfare takes up so much of the brain after birth The quest for inclusive language, particularly when discussing mythology and when discussing birth. Barb talks about how she has changed the ways she uses “motherhood,” “fatherhood” and “pregnant person.” Why certain stories are remembered for the “wrong reasons” but can be transformed through feminist and other perspectives (As Gloria Steinem said, “ The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off!” Book recommendation: Gail Carriger: https://amzn.to/3BZxKVO (The Heroine's Journey: For Writers, Readers, and Fans of Pop Culture) (she makes great points about how heroines and heroes are determined by their actions and situations, not by their gender)
Connect With Our Guest Learn more about Barb's classes and coaching sessions which can prepare you and your couple relationship for the normal challenges and changes of becoming a family. Visit her website and check out her blog at https://bbsuarez.com/ (https://bbsuarez.com/) Find Barb on Facebook and https://www.instagram.com/bbucknersuarez/ (Instagram) Our Music Music on the show is by the wonderful Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental Duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called The College Groves. Find out about their music and shows at: http://billyandbeth.com/ (billyandbeth.com) Connect With Your Own Stories and with Marisa’s Work Join Marisa’s online writing community, thehttps://www.marisagoudy.com/sovereign-writers ( Sovereign Writers’ Knot) Explore Marisa's work and get a copy of The Sovereignty Knot : https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling (Facebook), and join our vibranthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/knotworkpodcast ( listeners' community).
Our Story Kelly Braffet reads to us from her novel The Broken Tower’s preface, which reads like a myth. These initial pages serve to (re)introduce readers to the characters and their struggles in a fantastic world of magical bonds, warring kingdoms, and a power beyond reckoning. Our Guest Kelly Braffet is the author of the Border Lands novels, including The Broken Tower and The Unwilling, as well as the novels Save Yourself, Josie and Jack and Last Seen Leaving. Her writing has been published in The Fairy Tale Review, Post Road, and several anthologies. She attended Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University and currently lives in upstate New York with her husband, the author Owen King. You can purchase a signed copy of The Broken Tower from https://www.oblongbooks.com/autographed-books (Oblong Books & Music) or anywhere you love to buy books. Our Conversation In the discussion that follows the story, we explore the themes from the book and the choices an author makes, particularly when creating her own fantasy world: Themes of power, not just the magical sort, and how this is central to all of Kelly’s work Written in 2020 and 2021, this is a real “pandemic novel” that responds to the moment during it which it was written The dual meaning of “Work,” which describes the magic in this world and the factories that make the book “a capitalist dystopia” The question of whose stories get told and feeling haunted by all the people whose stories were never told The conscious inclusion of differently abled people as well as well as folks across gender identities and sexualities The question “who am I writing for” and how the author’s choices can hurt certain readers, particularly those with marginalized identities. Why Kelly chose to create a mythic world that does not replicate our own
Our Music Music on the show is by the wonderful Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental Duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called The College Groves. Find out about their music and shows at: http://billyandbeth.com/ (billyandbeth.com) More Ways to Untangle & Weave Your Own Stories and Work with MarisaJoin Marisa’s online writing community, thehttps://www.marisagoudy.com/sovereign-writers ( Sovereign Writers’ Knot) Explore Marisa's work and get a copy of The Sovereignty Knot : https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling (Facebook), and join our vibranthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/knotworkpodcast ( listeners' community).
Guest and storyteller Jen Murphy is a Feminine Embodiment Coach, Mythologist and Anthropologist. She is the creator of Celtic Embodiment, a cutting-edge modality that fuses the ancient wisdom of Celtic Mythology with the emerging field of Feminine Embodiment Coaching, to transform modern life for women. I have the good fortune of being part of Jen’s yearlong program, the Celtic Women’s Voyage where Jen takes us on an imram, a mystical, embodied journey to the otherworld and to the realms within. Learn more about Jen and her brilliant work at https://www.celticembodiment.com/ (www.celticembodiment.com) Jen comes to KnotWork with her own story, The Skerries Selkie, which is set in Skerries, County Dublin, right beside the Irish Sea. In our deep diving conversation, Jen and I explore: The parallels between the Selkie and An Mhaighdean Mhara, the mermaid How important it is to reclaim the feminine from the patriarchy and recover the lost self The masculine and feminine energy that exist in all of us and how we leave behind seal skin (the feminine) when we suit up and head off to work and enter the masculine world The problem with “doing the feminine in a masculine way” Valuing doing over being, logic over intuition, linear over the cyclical The bean feasa, the wise woman who comes in to help and heal the mother who has lost herself Sisterhood, rupture and separation, the quest to return to companionship and the arms of the sea. The sacred geometry of the Celtic Embodiment logo, with all of its straight lines and spirals and how evocative it is of this story and these ideas. How systems of oppression can play out in the body Animism: the belief that everything has a soul. The Brehon Law, the original laws of Ireland that protect trees, proving the way that everything had an essence and a soul. The way the body remembers. A book recommendation from Jen: Kimberly Ann Johnson Call of the Wild: How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power, and Use it for Good What it means to be a mother of sons (as well as daughters and non-binary children) in a culture with so much trouble with “toxic masculinity”
Our show music is a compilation of traditional tunes, including "The College Grove," performed by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: http://billyandbeth.com/ (http://billyandbeth.com/) Do you want to explore and tell your own stories? Marisa's Sovereign Writers’ Knot online community is accepting new members now. https://www.marisagoudy.com/sovereign-writers (Learn more and apply to join )this unique space for writers who want to dive deep into stories that are at once personal and universal. Explore Marisa's work and get a copy of The Sovereignty Knot : https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram) and join our vibranthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/knotworkpodcast ( listeners' community on Facebook).
Maura McMahon is a storyteller and spoken word poet whose collection of Irish tales, pirate adventures, and women's sovereignty songs have entranced and empowered audiences across regional venues in New York’s Hudson Valley for over 15 years. Her deeply engaging performative style is imbued with the Celtic spirit. As a character performer, Maura has embodied Grace O'Malley, and the Grey Sea Hag as well as Hippolyta the Amazonian Queen and Mrs. Claus of the Hudson Valley. Maura McMahon comes to tell us a story of a bold, complicated Irish woman of the 17th century who shares her beautiful name. She was first introduced to this story through a book by the https://amzn.to/3tYB3e0 (wonderful folklorist Eddie Lenihan, Ferocious Irish Women.) Known to history as Máire Rua O’Brien, our heroine was born a MacMahon at Bunratty Castle in County Clare and was a resident of the famous Leamaneh Castle in The Burren. This is a story of love and loss, of cunning and sovereignty. How and why does this story matter to us? What it takes to care for your children and yourself when you're endangered The question of what it means to be a heroine: does it have to be about being “ferocious”? Woman’s sovereignty and choice and how it can be found through partnership and outside it The myth of redheads and their fiery temperament The enduring nature of strong women’s stories As a storyteller, refusing to drop the parts of the story are “ugly” or that the audience may not like, especially when the listeners have a sense of which side is right or wrong and you’re telling historical tales.
Our show music is a compilation of traditional tunes, including "The College Grove," performed by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: http://billyandbeth.com/ (http://billyandbeth.com/) Continue Your KnotWork journey...Explore Marisa's work and get a copy of The Sovereignty Knot : https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Write your own stories in Marisa's online writers's community, the https://www.marisagoudy.com/sovereign-writers (Sovereign Writers’ Knot. ) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram) and join our vibranthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/knotworkpodcast ( listeners' community on Facebook).
In this week's story, you'll meet Mongfind, the Sovereignty Goddess turned queen turned witch who appears in the Book of Lecan, a medieval Irish manuscript compiled at the turn of the fourteenth century. Her story is part of the better known tale of Niall of the Nine Hostages, the founding father of the O'Neill clan. This story was written by Marisa Goudy. It is an adaptation from the translation of the original manuscript, inspired by the interpretation of the tale by Gearóid Ó Crualaoich in The Book of the Cailleach: Stories of the Wise-Woman Healer. This week's guest Meg Sweeten helps me uncover the layers of modern meaning contained in this ancient story. Meg is a certified meditation + mindfulness teacher. She is also the founder of The Soul Cabin, a practical online resource for inner wellness. This virtual space supports modern women looking to rekindle and maintain a connection to themselves, through all the seasons of their lives with: meditation, resilience techniques, nature-based practices, and soulful community. Find Meg Sweeten at https://www.thesoulcabin.com/ (www.thesoulcabin.com) and on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thesoulcabin/ (@thesoulcabin) In our conversation, Meg and I explored: How, in mythology, the power of earth and nature are even more meaningful than the human struggles and shifting perspective. The importance of honoring the land we live on, particularly North Americans. We may not know the stories of the native people whose land we now live upon, but the stories of our ancestors can still help us develop a relationship with earth and nature. As white Americans, we reflect on how the more rooted you are in your own lineage and family heritage, the more rooted you are, and the more able you are to confront white supremacy, fragility, and cultural appropriation. This story and all stories as a product of their times and the preoccupations of the storyteller. Tension between human will (the masculine) and the tides of nature (feminine). Shapeshifting characters and the way we shift the shape of characters based on our own experiences. The very modern feeling elements of this story: slavery, class, privilege. The difficult and shadowy elements of mythology, and how these heroines are very different from the simpler fairy tale princesses that are (theoretically) easy to love. The source of the Mongfind story, The Book of the Cailleach, calls us to recognize the power of names and naming, and why some characters are forgotten.
Dive deeper into these stories of Ireland and the Celtic world and explore your own storiesExplore Marisa's work and get a copy of The Sovereignty Knot : https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram) and join our vibranthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/knotworkpodcast ( listeners' community on Facebook). Join the Sovereign Writers’ Knot, Marisa’s online writing community for healers, heroines, dreamers, and wisdom keepers. New members are invited to apply through March 2, 2022: www.marisagoudy.com/sovereign-writers Our show music is a compilation of traditional tunes, including The Cape Breton Salute, performed by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: http://billyandbeth.com/ (http://billyandbeth.com/)
My guest Kate Chadbourne is a singer, harper, and storyteller, an award-winning songwriter and poet, a scholar and teacher of Irish language and folklore with a PhD from Harvard, and a beloved performer at venues throughout New England. Kate is also the founder of The Bardic Academy, a school for writers, musicians, singers, and young scholars. http://katechadbourne.com (Learn more about Kate as a performer, teacher, editor, and guide.) Fadó Fadó in Éireann… In celebration of the Celtic festival of Imbolc, Kate offers us two tales of Brigit, Ireland’s patron goddess and saint. The first story describes Brigit as the Blessed Virgin Mary's best friend and the first celebration of Saint Brigit's Day. The second is a story of resourcefulness and kindness: when Brigit saves a fox and outfoxes a king. Following the stories, our discussion explore: Fite fuaite… an Irish phrase that speaks to the weaving together of ideas The meanings of Brigit’s names: “Flaming arrow” and “life force, vitality.” A reframe of the concept “the universe is conspiring on our behalf” is that the universe is conspiring on our behalf because we are co-conspiring with it. “Conspiring” means “to be inspirited together.” In these stories, Brigit doesn’t ask God to take care of everything, she asks for the eyes to see the solution and she will do her part. A new perspective on prayer The power of the Celtic Wheel of the Year, which reminds us of our most treasured values as well as our connection to nature. Imbolc: the feast of Ewe Lactation. A great excuse to have the finest butter, cheese, and ice cream!
Want to offer someone Brigit’s Blessings? Say: Beannachtaí lá Fheile Bríde Our show music is a compilation of traditional tunes, including The Cape Breton Salute, performed by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: http://billyandbeth.com/ (http://billyandbeth.com/) More Ways to Untangle & Weave Your Own Stories Explore Marisa's work and get a copy of The Sovereignty Knot : https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com (www.marisagoudy.com) Join our online writing community,https://www.marisagoudy.com/sovereign-writers ( Sovereign Writers’ Knot) Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram), Facebook, and join our vibranthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/knotworkpodcast ( listeners' community).
From your host, Marisa Goudy, word witch, writing coach, story healer, and author of The Sovereignty Knot: A Woman’s Way to Freedom, Power, Love, and Magic: I started this show because I know in my bones that mythology is medicine for our modern maladies. We use the ancient stories to understand our lives all the time. Thing is, we usually just aren’t aware of it. In this episode, I share my own story of my relationship to storytelling, including my early fascination with Irish culture and Celtic mythology that carried me all the way to an MA in Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama at University College Dublin. You’ll hear many stories from Ireland because those stories are dear to me and are closest to my expertise, but my guests are bringing tales from their own traditions and ancestral lineages. In future seasons, I hope to cast our story net further and further and call in storytellers, characters and plots from around the globe. When you subscribe to KnotWork Storytelling, you can expect: original stories drawn from mythology and folklore, that either myself or my guest have adapted we seek to balance the material from the original manuscripts and the tales collected by folklorists with the modern sensibilities that really make these stories come alive some guests are brilliant oral storytellers who will perform their favorite pieces for you authors whose fiction draws upon ancient origin legends, heroes’ journeys, and heroines’ tales
Explore Marisa's work and get a copy of The Sovereignty Knot : www.marisagoudy.com Follow the show on https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/ (Instagram) and join our vibranthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/knotworkpodcast ( listeners' community on Facebook). Out show music is performed by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: http://billyandbeth.com/ (http://billyandbeth.com/)