KnotWork Storytelling

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 STORYRab 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 GUESTRab 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.comOUR CONVERSATIONRab 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.comWORK WITH MARISA1:1 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

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 GUESTSionnáin 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 BrigidContact her at shannonsoulsounds@gmail.com OUR CONVERSATIONThe 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 magicTuam: 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.comWORK WITH MARISA1:1 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.comLearn about our global creative community, The Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-communityFind more of

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 CONVERSATIONWe 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 GUESTAodh 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 @oreganilloartworksIn 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 FictionHow 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 mythologyMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.comWork With Marisa1:1 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.comLearn about our global creative community, The Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-communityFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on Substack,

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 StoryMarisa 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-WitchThe 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 MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.comWork With Marisa1:1 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.comThe Writers’ Knot opens to new members through September 9. Learn more and join the interest list: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-communityFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on Substack,

Calling All Writers & Creatives: Join our global writing community!Enrollment in the Writers’ Knot is now open: marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-communityWant to talk about whether the group is a good match? Let's set up a quick call.Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 STORYThis 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-communityAbout 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 MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.comWork With Marisa1:1 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.comThe Writers’ Knot opens to new members through September 9. Learn more and join the interest list:

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 STORYThe 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 GUESTAs 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.embodiedOUR CONVERSATIONErica’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 keeningMná 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 soulsThe 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 inspirationOur MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.comWork With Marisa1:1 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

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 STORYWe 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 GUESTAdam 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 CONVERSATIONJoseph Campbell said, “myth is metaphor.” For Adam, a poem is like a mythology in miniature.The role of Jungian thought and depth psychologyAdam’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 thingCharles 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...

Calling All Writers & CreativesJoin us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives: marisagoudy.com/lughnasa-writers-retreatJoin our global writing community!Enrollment in the Writers’ Knot is now open: marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-communityPlease Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 STORYAs 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.REFLECTIONSThe 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 MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.comWork With Marisa1:1 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.comThe Writers’ Knot opens to new members on Lughnasadh, August 1. Learn more and join the interest list: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-communityFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on

Calling All Writers & CreativesJoin us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives: marisagoudy.com/lughnasa-writers-retreatJoin our global writing community!Enrollment in the Writers’ Knot is now open: marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-communityPlease Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 StorySophie 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-retreatOr, the event is free with your five month membership in the Writers’ Knot: https://www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-communityOur MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.comWork With Marisa1:1 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.comThe Writers’ Knot opens to new members on Lughnasadh, August 1. Learn more and join the interest list: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-communityFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 MythsJoin us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives: marisagoudy.com/lughnasa-writers-retreatJoin our global writing community!Enrollment in the Writers’ Knot is now open: marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-communityOUR STORYThe 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 GUESTRegina 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 FacebookRegina 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 CONVERSATIONA 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 importanceA story with something terrible at the core of it - animal abuse - and how to hold it with sensitivity, and a happy endingElen 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 storySympathetic 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...

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 MythsJoin us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives: marisagoudy.com/lughnasa-writers-retreatJoin our global writing community!Enrollment in the Writers’ Knot is now open: marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-communityOUR STORYAccording 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 GUESTSandy 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.mythologiesOUR CONVERSATIONNot-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 BoatOur MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.comWork With Marisa1:1 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.comThe Writers’ Knot opens to new members on Lughnasadh, August 1. Learn more and join the interest list: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-communityFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty...

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 MythsJoin us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives: marisagoudy.com/lughnasa-writers-retreatOUR STORYMannanán 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 GUESTSeán 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 CONVERSATIONIrish 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 folkloreHow 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 MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy:

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 MythsJoin us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives: marisagoudy.com/lughnasa-writers-retreatOUR STORYRather 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 GUESTAisling 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 @WordsFromAcrosstheVeilOUR CONVERSATIONImbas 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 listenThe 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 MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.comWork With...

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 MythsJoin us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives: marisagoudy.com/lughnasa-writers-retreatOUR STORYThis 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 geographical 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 GUESTBrian 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 CONVERSATIONWhat 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 BCEElements 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 MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy:

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 StoryMeet 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 GuestKarina 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 @irishmythsretoldBoth 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.hndrsnOur ConversationOur 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 parenthoodThe five spells of druidic protection are inspired by the original sources and Karina's imaginationIrish 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 fuelsOur fear of our own children’s fragility, including fears of giving our kids an eating disorder or pushing them to suicideThe importance of fathering - both for partner and childThe role of rhythmic stories, fairy tale, adventure, and romances in the development of childrenThe role of ritual, particularly coming of age rituals which get people to wake up and be alive to what happens in life.Our MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.comWork With Marisa1:1 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....

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 StoryDid 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 GuestMartha 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 ConversationSheela 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 rebirthApproaching 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 beingsThis 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 MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.comWork With Marisa1:1 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

Write With Us in 2024Do 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 SubstackLove 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 StoryPerdita 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 GuestPerdita 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.orgPerdita’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.comOur 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 guysCyclical 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 MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.comWork With MarisaJoin 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...

Write With Us in 2024Do 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 SubstackLove 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 StoryElizabeth 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 GuestElizabeth 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 ConversationThis excerpt from My Life as a Prayer is a request for help, and a prayer of gratitudeElizabeth 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 marriageScripture as sacred storytellingThe 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 activismElizabeth’s “best imaginary friend forever” BIFF, Maeve, the unrepentant Celtic Magdalene, heroine of The Passion of Mary Magdalene and three other booksThe need for an incarnate goddess, and a desire for a relationship with JesusThe 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 GazaFite 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 MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.comWork With MarisaJoin 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.comFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot:

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 StoryDimple 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 GuestDimple 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 ConversationHow 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 cultureWe 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 painAncestral healing is for us and for our entire family - Dimple is healing trauma for many generations of her familyStory Healing for global conflict, including the Truth and Reconciliation Committees in South Africa and Dimple’s work with people after the Rwandan genocide of 1994Dehumanization 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 worldThe mythology of Hinduism (though it’s not myth to many); the indigenous stories told on the show Reservation DogsOur MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.comWork With Marisa1:1 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.comFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her...

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 StoryEleanora 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 GuestEleanora 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 ConversationHow 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 mountainsOur 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 MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.comWork With Marisa1:1 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.comFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on Substack, Instagram, and