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by Marisa Goudy
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OUR STORYJen 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 GUESTJen 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 EPISODEHow stories choose their tellers - Jen had prepared a different tale entirely, and then this telling of Arianrhod insisted on being toldJen takes us on a beautiful tour of the moon's monthly cycle as a map of our own becomingArianrhod 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 duskReclaiming 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 natureJen's Sunset Journal is launching by Lúnasa (harvest season). Be the first to know when it’s available: https://www.celticcreatives.com/sunsetWORK WITH MARISA1:1 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.comLearn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groupsFollow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.comPLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOWLove 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 STORYWe’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: TURASTuras, 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.comIN THIS EPISODETír 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 PROMPTSThis 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 MARISA1:1 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.comLearn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groupsFollow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.comPLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOWLove 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 STORYJust 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 GUESTRobert 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 @wicklowcelt and at www.robertmulhall.comIN THIS EPISODEThough 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 traditionThe 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 forceManchán 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 sovereigntyWhat 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 kinForgiving the body as preparation for welcoming ErosFire as alchemical medicine: Robert's fire ceremony and the difference between external preparation for difficult times and internal readinessMusic 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 www.marisagoudy.comLearn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groupsFollow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 SubstackLove 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 MagicOUR STORYA 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 GUESTSarah 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.ieIN THIS EPISODEThe 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 WomanSarah’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 SarahWhat 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 BrigidAncestral stories and how they cause us to both fear and reclaim aspects of ourselvesSaint 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.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 www.marisagoudy.comLearn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot:
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 FeminineOur StoryAs 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 GuestKate 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 ideasThe 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 natureImbolc: 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 MagicWork 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 group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groupsFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.comFollow 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 FeminineIn 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 GuestIn 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 LinkedInOur 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 renewalBuilding Irish cultural community in Minnesota on Dakota landLanguage, place, and the intersection of Irish and Indigenous wisdomThe divine feminine as goddess, saint, and living presenceKeeping tradition alive without holding it too tightlyThe 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 MagicWork 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 group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups<span class="ql-
Write Your Book With Us In 2026The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2026Registration 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 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 MagicOUR STORYCiarán 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 EPISODEJanuary 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 anthropocentrismConnecting with the animal nature within and reconnecting to nature in a profound, elemental wayWhat it means to be a liminal creature, to hold space for both worlds, for multiple traditions, like paganism and CatholicismSources 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 STORYCiarán 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 EPISODEJanuary 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 anthropocentrismConnecting with the animal nature within and reconnecting to nature in a profound, elemental wayWhat it means to be a liminal creature, to hold space for both worlds, for multiple traditions, like paganism and CatholicismSources of this story: John Moriarty in Invoking Ireland, Martin Shaw in Jawbone, the original manuscript at celt.ucc.ie, Ciaran Carson’s The Star Factor
Write Your Book With Us In 2026The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2026Registration 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 STORYIt’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 EPISODEThe 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 storyCalm 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 3Join 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.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 group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groupsFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on Substack, Instagram, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstoryt
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On KnotWork, we explore the mythology and folklore of Ireland, and beyond. Episodes begin with a story, followed by a deep dive conversation about how this age-old tale still resonates today. Our guests include oral storytellers, writers, artists, musicians, and spiritual leaders. Occasionally, in our Myth Workers and Culture Makers series, our guest offers a song, a meditation, or another bit of creative magic. We talk about what it means to live a myth-inspired life.These conversations explore our relationship to land and to identity, particularly related to what it means to be Irish and a member of the Irish diaspora.Whether you’re drawn to Celtic culture or the mysteries that linger at ancient sacred sites, or whether you just like a good story and expansive conversation, you’re in the right place. Welcome. Fáilte.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 w
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