KnotWork Myth & 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&nbsp;educator. Along with with Kerry Graham, Rab is the host of The Celtic Tales Chronicles podcast.&nbsp;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&nbsp; 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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;&nbsp;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.&nbsp;&nbsp;Why do we tell stories? Never underestimate the power of sheer pleasure!&nbsp;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&nbsp;Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy:&nbsp;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<a...

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 &amp; Culture Makers series and includes a deep, powerful conversation about ancient tradition and living lore. OUR GUESTSionnáin is a singer, songwriter &amp; 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 &amp; Rising with BrigidContact her at [email protected]&nbsp;OUR CONVERSATIONThe song, “The Wise One,” was born beside the fire at the Paps of Anu in County Kerry.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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:&nbsp;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&nbsp;writingcoachmarisa.comLearn about our global creative community, The Writers’ Knot:&nbsp;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 &amp; 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.&nbsp;Connect with Aodh: https://oreganillo.org/ and on Instagram @oreganilloartworksIn this episode:Aodh considers taking up the bardic tradition to be a lifelong quest&nbsp;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.&nbsp;&nbsp;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:&nbsp;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&nbsp;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,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot:&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on&nbsp;Substack,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

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.&nbsp;Marisa reflects on power, and how not all females in power represent feminine power.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;Kamala Harris’s promise to build the “most lethal fighting force in the world” is an example of the perpetuation of the domination system.&nbsp;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:&nbsp;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&nbsp;writingcoachmarisa.comThe Writers’ Knot opens to new members through September 9. Learn more and join the interest list:&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-communityFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot:&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on&nbsp;Substack,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

Calling All Writers &amp; Creatives: Join our global writing community!Enrollment in the Writers’ Knot is now open:&nbsp;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?&nbsp;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…”&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;Our MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy:&nbsp;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&nbsp;writingcoachmarisa.comThe Writers’ Knot opens to new members through September 9. Learn more and join the interest list:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

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.&nbsp;&nbsp;Erica’s life-long love for the arts and collaboration in community has taken her all over the world, including:&nbsp; 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.&nbsp;&nbsp;Into the Circle Theatre is passionately rooted in reverently honoring the tradition of the seanchaí in a modern context.&nbsp; 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 &amp; Embodied, and Instagram @wise.and.embodiedOUR CONVERSATIONErica’s experience of what it feels like to be what she calls a “sacred storyteller”&nbsp;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&nbsp;Weaving story, voice, drum - Erica’s creative process and how it relies on a connection to the&nbsp;&nbsp;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:&nbsp;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<a href="https://my.captivate.fm/writingcoachmarisa.com" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;Adam lives in Dublin where he works as a freelance writer. For more info on Adam’s work and books visit www.salmonpoetry.com&nbsp;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&nbsp; - 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 &amp; CreativesJoin us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives:&nbsp;marisagoudy.com/lughnasa-writers-retreatJoin our global writing community!Enrollment in the Writers’ Knot is now open:&nbsp;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&nbsp;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, &nbsp; 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.&nbsp;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:&nbsp;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&nbsp;writingcoachmarisa.comThe Writers’ Knot opens to new members on Lughnasadh, August 1. Learn more and join the interest list:&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-communityFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot:&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on&nbsp;<a href="https://mythismedicine.substack.com/publish/subscribers" rel="noopener...

Calling All Writers &amp; CreativesJoin us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives:&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;The Writers’ Knot is a global community of storytellers, myth lovers, memoirists, novelists, poets, and bloggers.&nbsp;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:&nbsp;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&nbsp;writingcoachmarisa.comThe Writers’ Knot opens to new members on Lughnasadh, August 1. Learn more and join the interest list:&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-communityFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot:&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on&nbsp;<a href="https://mythismedicine.substack.com/publish/subscribers" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

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 &amp; Creatives: Reweave Your Own MythsJoin us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives:&nbsp;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&nbsp; 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&nbsp; '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.&nbsp;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&nbsp; 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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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&nbsp; you touch something and then you’re imbued with its powers.&nbsp;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 &amp; Creative: Reweave Your Own MythsJoin us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives:&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;&nbsp;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:&nbsp;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&nbsp;writingcoachmarisa.comThe Writers’ Knot opens to new members on Lughnasadh, August 1. Learn more and join the interest list:&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-communityFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book,&nbsp;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 &amp; Creative: Reweave Your Own MythsJoin us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives:&nbsp;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. &nbsp; He lives in western Maine and is the author of three books:&nbsp; The Silver Branch and the Otherworld (now available for pre-order), Courting the Wild Queen, and The Forest Reminds Us Who We Are. &nbsp;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&nbsp;&nbsp;“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.&nbsp;The many meanings attached to Irish words, like Art which means bear, stone, power, and god&nbsp;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:&nbsp;<a...

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 &amp; Creative: Reweave Your Own MythsJoin us on August 1 for HARVEST: An Online Lughnasa Retreat for Writers and Creatives:&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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&nbsp;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.&nbsp;&nbsp;Our MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy:&nbsp;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&nbsp;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:&nbsp; 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:&nbsp;<a...

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,&nbsp;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&nbsp; are linked through the presence of the goddess in her many manifestations.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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,&nbsp;artist Kathy Tynan, kathytynan.net&nbsp;&amp; @kathy.tynan. The books are designs by Karina’s niece, Ruby Henderson&nbsp; 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.&nbsp;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:&nbsp;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&nbsp;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,&nbsp; 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,&nbsp; the Irish tradition of keening and as a shaman.Find her at marthawrightshaman.com or on instagram @Marthawrightshaman&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;Intimacy, at the emotional and at the physical level.&nbsp;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:&nbsp;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<a...

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 &nbsp;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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;&nbsp;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:&nbsp;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&nbsp;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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp;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)&nbsp;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:&nbsp;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&nbsp;writingcoachmarisa.comFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

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&nbsp;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&nbsp;Our ConversationHow intergenerational trauma and other unseen influences shape our lives.&nbsp;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.”&nbsp;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:&nbsp;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&nbsp;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&nbsp;on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.Our StoryEleanora Amendolara shares an excerpt from her book Divine Embodiment: The Art &amp; Practice of Chumpi Illumination. We discuss Eleanora’s many trips to Peru and the origins of her pioneering approach to healing and spiritual awakening. &nbsp;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.&nbsp;Get your copy of Divine Embodiment: The Art &amp; 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)&nbsp;Our MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy:&nbsp;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&nbsp;writingcoachmarisa.comFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot:&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on&nbsp;Substack,&nbsp;Instagram, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

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&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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 GuestLaura Murphy, @everose on Instagram, is a poet, activist and healer from Ireland whose work centers around the ancientIrish 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.&nbsp;Our ConversationA 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 experienceThe power of choice and consent; the Irish tradition of the Sovereignty Goddess who chooses the king, and how that tradition was disruptedThis story explores sacred sexual union, but also the terrible first kiss&nbsp;What it is to be in relationship with our younger self and younger body, without buying into the toxicity of “anti-aging”&nbsp;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 1900The ongoing struggle with the word and concept of “Sovereignty,” particularly with the far right’s use of the term.&nbsp;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.comOur MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy:&nbsp;billyandbeth.comWork With Marisa1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative...

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&nbsp;on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.Our StoryMeet 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 MusicMusic at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy:&nbsp;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&nbsp;writingcoachmarisa.comFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot:&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on&nbsp;Substack,&nbsp;Instagram, and&nbsp;Facebook.

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 StoryFite Fuaite, the Irish for “interwoven.” Jen Murphy weaves a vast&nbsp;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 GuestJen 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/voyageOur ConversationThe 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.&nbsp;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&nbsp; 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.&nbsp;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 Facebook.

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 StoryIona. 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 GuestRoyce 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 ConversationThis book grew out of Royce’s 2016 journey: a “conscious hike” on the Ridgeway National Trail, the oldest road in England and Europe,&nbsp; 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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;&nbsp;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 counselorAn invocation of vitality and why it is so important to dream and to value our dreams.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

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 StoryLilith 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 GuestPearl 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.&nbsp; Pearl is a farmer, grandmother, a blogger and a Crone of wisdom.&nbsp;Pearl experienced years of personal turmoil beginning about age nine.&nbsp; Nothing.&nbsp; But nothing, worked.&nbsp; Then at age 43, she discovered meditation and in&nbsp;December 1988 learned that she could ask for a dream. &nbsp;&nbsp;That first dream unleashed an avalanche of change.&nbsp; Like the Myth of the Goddess Inanna, Pearl lived the descent into the underworld. &nbsp;Like the Myth of the Goddess Lilith, Pearl has lived this process of life, death, and rebirth.&nbsp;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 ConversationPearl’s visionary experience of the goddesses Lilith and Sophia during a reiki treatment&nbsp;The contrast of a profound spiritual opening of the divine feminine while at conference of educators whose systems had little respect for a feminine perspectiveContinuing 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”&nbsp;The 325 AD Council of Nicaea and Empire Constantine’s declarations establish one true church that declared the birth-death-rebirth story to be hereticalMarisa’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&nbsp; Roman Catholic WomenPriest movement.&nbsp;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&nbsp;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).&nbsp;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

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 StorySophie’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.&nbsp;Our GuestSophie 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 ConversationHow 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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;Stories that were intended to be told in certain seasons. How do we transform the stories amidst climate and phenological change?&nbsp;Stories travel in bodies at the pace of a footstep.More complete show notes will be available at the Myth Is Medicine Substack.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 Facebook.

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 StoryLaura 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.&nbsp;Our GuestLaura 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.&nbsp;Follow Laura on Instagram: @everose Art for this episode, “Danu Rising” by Yuri Leitch of The Ogham Grove.The Danu Chant at&nbsp; the end of Laura’s story is written by Jenny Ní Ruiséil; sung &amp;&nbsp;recorded by Melanie Taylor.Our ConversationDánu 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.&nbsp;Our relationship with gnosis and ‘the mystery”: our birthright is to hold the mystery, not to solve the mysteryThe role of the Grandmothers: in the story, across spiritual traditions, and in Irish society in recent generationsThe calling to be an elder in midlifeWhat it means to follow your dán: an Irish word that simultaneously means gift, skill, art, poem, soul and destinyWhen the English language replaced the Irish we lost a poetic way of speaking and expressing that was closer to the mysteriesThe 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 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: <a href="https://www.knotworkstorytelling.com/episode/www.marisagoudy.com"...

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove 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 StoryAs 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 StrandMarisa's spiritual foundation: studies at the Sacred Center Mystery SchoolA devotion to mythology that goes beyond costume drama&nbsp;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 diasporaOur 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." billyandbeth.comWork With MarisaThis 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.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 Facebook.

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove KnotWork Storytelling?&nbsp;Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and stay connected between seasons&nbsp;on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.Our StoryCeridwen 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 episodeThis 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.&nbsp;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 &amp; 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 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."&nbsp;billyandbeth.comWork With MarisaThis 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.comFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on&nbsp;<a...

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove KnotWork Storytelling?&nbsp;Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories&nbsp;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 GUESTMari Kennedy is a global gatherer of Celtic women, a yoga, breathwork, and embodiment teacher and Sovereign Woman's coach and Mentor.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;Find Mari at www.marikennedy.com, &nbsp; www.thecelticwheel.com, and on Instagram: @marikennedywisdomThe marriage of the king to the goddess is at the core of the indigenous Irish tradition’s concept of Sovereignty. The marriage of the feminine and masculine in the individual works on the individual as well as the collective cultural level.Mari looks to Carol Gilligan’s definition of patriarchy: it is a way of living that privileges some men over other men and all men over women. Feminism has always been intended to support all people because patriarchy affects everyone in the society.Mari’s story stands in contrast to Marisa’s version of this story (Ireland’s Forgotten Goddess Witch Queen, S1 Ep2) which places Mongfind at the center of the story. Marisa was inspired by Gearóid Ó Crualoich’s Book of the Cailleach&nbsp;The marriage of the scholarship, the silences, and the intuitive knowing -&nbsp; and making room for the modern retellings.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.comFind more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on&nbsp;Substack,&nbsp;Instagram,&nbsp;Facebook, and&nbsp;join listeners' community.

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove KnotWork Storytelling?&nbsp;Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories&nbsp;on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.Our StoryThe 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 GuestTara Wild is a women’s educator, storyteller and songstress, focusing on uplifting nature-based feminine wisdom &amp; ancestral teachings from Ireland &amp; 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 &amp; Breathwork facilitator.She journeys to Ireland &amp; 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 ConversationThe 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 grailThe 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 DuerkMythology 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 &amp; multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts:&nbsp;billyandbeth.comWork with MarisaMarisa is a writing coach for wellness professionals, entrepreneurs, and aspiring authors. Learn more about her services and book a complementary...

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove KnotWork Storytelling?&nbsp;Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories&nbsp;on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.Our StoryAccording to the New York Times,&nbsp; 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 GuestOwen 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.&nbsp;Our ConversationIn 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.”&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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 beingAudiobooks and the power of a narrator, particularly the “wildly gifted storyteller” Marin IrelandOur 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."&nbsp;billyandbeth.comWork with MarisaMarisa offers&nbsp;1:1 coaching for writers&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;creative entrepreneurs.Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on&nbsp;Substack,&nbsp;Instagram,&nbsp;Facebook, and&nbsp;join listeners' community.

Our StoryIn 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.&nbsp;Our GuestLoraine 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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;&nbsp;Find Loraine: website, Instagram, Facebook, YouTubeOur ConversationThis 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.&nbsp; Kathy Scott’s work with Irish cultural organization, The Trailblazery, is devoted to applying these ideas, promoting healing and “post traumatic growth.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;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&nbsp; and is rooted in a critique of clinical psychology that is based on ego and obtaining objectivesWhat 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: <a href="www.thesacredhealingwell.com/SoulSanctuarymeditation" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove KnotWork Storytelling?&nbsp;Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories&nbsp;on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.Our StoryKaty 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.&nbsp; The&nbsp; 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 GuestKaty 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.&nbsp;Follow Katy on Instagram @katy.swift.storytelling Our ConversationKnotWork 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 traditionIn 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&nbsp; 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&nbsp;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 ancestorsThe significance of place names in Scotland and the resurgence of the Scots Gaelic language&nbsp;Work with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers &amp; creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called&nbsp;<a...

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove KnotWork Storytelling?&nbsp;Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories&nbsp;on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.Our StoryIreland 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 GuestCarmen 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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;Follow Carmen on Instagram and Facebook.Our ConversationThe 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.&nbsp;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 creativesThe stories of navigation and destinations reached and the myths of the rudderless boat, sent beyond the ninth wave to enter a new adventureThe 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 butterfliesThe 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...

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove KnotWork Storytelling?&nbsp;Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories&nbsp;on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.Our StoryThree stories from Turtle Island - from Antigonish in Nova Scotia, Alaska, and the Cape Fear River in North Carolina&nbsp; - speak to expectations of race, ethnicity, and skin color, particularly when it comes to Scottish identity and the Gaelic language.&nbsp;Our GuestDr 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 ConversationMichael 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 surpriseThe 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.&nbsp;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 GaelsWe’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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;Differences in Scottish and Irish immigration experiences&nbsp;How the academy was created to spread whiteness, Anglo-Saxonness, colonialism and ignores the cultural expression of all others, particularly of the Celtic peoplesYou are a meaningful member of the community when you participate and contribute, not just because of your name and ancestryWhat 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 &amp; creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called&nbsp;<a...

Please Support Our Show: Join us on SubstackLove KnotWork Storytelling?&nbsp;Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories&nbsp;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 GuestDee 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&nbsp; through various media, including painting, drawing, film, storytelling, and performance.&nbsp;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&nbsp;Our ConversationExile 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 familyWhat 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 medicineOur 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.&nbsp;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. <a...

Please Support Our Show on SubstackLove KnotWork Storytelling?&nbsp; Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.Our StoryAs 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&nbsp; Nic Giollarnáith, brings us stories from Ireland’s Schools Collection as well as&nbsp; and stories her own childhood.Our GuestCaoimhe&nbsp; 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&nbsp; is a regular guest on Irish language radio shows on BBC, RTÉ Raidió na&nbsp; 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 ConversationThe 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&nbsp; 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 USMeeting the Badb, another face of the bansheeReclaiming the legacy of Peig Sayers, the Irish storyteller whose memoir was required reading for generations of Irish students&nbsp;Work with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers &amp; creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called&nbsp;Healing for Heroines&nbsp;sessions.Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on&nbsp;Substack,&nbsp;Instagram,&nbsp;Facebook, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/4429930243750952" rel="noopener...

Support the Show on SubstackLove KnotWork Storytelling?&nbsp; Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.Our StoryThe “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 GuestLee Chaix McDonough is the founder of Coach With Clarity,&nbsp; 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 ConversationWhat 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 worthyWhen Medb is, and isn’t, a model of who we want to beThe Princess, Queen, and the Wise Woman - meant to be balanced within usOur psychological desire for the binary, especially when we are under stress and need easeMedb’s voracious sexuality; Medb and Aillill as a sex positive couple with an open marriageWork with MarisaSign up for the Gift of the Shapeshifter, a free online workshop on March 1 or 6.Join our creative community,&nbsp;the Heroine's Knot.&nbsp;Our next 13-week program begins March 8.Marisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers &amp; creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called&nbsp;Healing for Heroines&nbsp;sessions.Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on&nbsp;Substack,&nbsp;Instagram,&nbsp;Facebook, and&nbsp;join our vibrant listeners'...

Please Support Our Show on SubstackLove KnotWork Storytelling?&nbsp; Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.Our storyMitlé 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 GuestMitlé 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.&nbsp;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 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."&nbsp;billyandbeth.comWork 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.comMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers &amp; creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called&nbsp;Healing for Heroines&nbsp;sessions.Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on&nbsp;Substack,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

Our StoryIn 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 SubstackLove KnotWork Storytelling?&nbsp;Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories&nbsp;on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.Our StoryIn 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 GuestPerdita 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&nbsp;wayoftherose.org&nbsp;and her new Substack newsletter, Take Back the Magic,&nbsp;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."&nbsp;billyandbeth.comWork with MarisaJoin our creative community,&nbsp;the Heroine's Knot.&nbsp;Our next 13-week program begins March 1.Marisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers &amp; creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called&nbsp;Healing for Heroines&nbsp;sessions.Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on&nbsp;Substack,&nbsp;Instagram,&nbsp;Facebook, and&nbsp;join our vibrant listeners' community.

Support the Show on SubstackLove KnotWork Storytelling?&nbsp;Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories&nbsp;on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.Our StoryLíadain 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 DepartmentOur GuestBethany 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.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Find Bethany at bethanyhegedus.com. Instagram @thewritingbarnOur 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."&nbsp;billyandbeth.comWork with MarisaJoin our creative community, the Heroine's Knot. Our next 13-week program begins March 1.Marisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers &amp; creative entrepreneurs, as well as 1:1 intuitive tarot sessions called&nbsp;Healing for Heroines&nbsp;sessions.Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on&nbsp;Substack,&nbsp;Instagram,&nbsp;Facebook, and&nbsp;join our vibrant listeners' community.

Support the Show on SubstackLove KnotWork Storytelling?&nbsp; Support the show, find the in-depth show notes, and get even more stories on our Substack, Myth Is Medicine.Our StoryThe 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 7Our GuestLaura 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 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."&nbsp;billyandbeth.comWork with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for writers &amp; 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,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on Substack, &nbsp;Instagram,&nbsp;Facebook, and&nbsp;join our vibrant listeners' community.

Our StoryMarisa 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: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 quicklyThe 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. 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: www.marisagoudy.com/sovereignty-knotOur 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."&nbsp;billyandbeth.comWork with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her&nbsp;Healing for Heroines&nbsp;packages.She also offers&nbsp;Story Weaver Book Coaching&nbsp;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,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on&nbsp;Instagram,&nbsp;Facebook, and&nbsp;join our vibrant listeners' community.

Our StoryThe 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 GuestKate 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.&nbsp;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 katechadbourne.com to join the Fáilte Revolution!Our ConversationSamhain 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, “The Lament of the Hag of Beare.” Recorded by Christian monks, in the poem, the old woman laments&nbsp; “you people only care about money, in my day, it was people we cared about.”&nbsp;An essential resource: Gearóid Ó Crualaoich’s The Book of the Cailleach: Stories of the Wise-Woman Healer&nbsp;The story of Donnchadh Mór Mac Mánais and the Cailleach in which they engage in a contest to flail the fields (thresh for grain).&nbsp;&nbsp;“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 (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 HillThe shapeshifting nature of the Cailleach.Kate’s story of meeting a real life cailleach in Bantry when she was 20The 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 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...

Our StoryThis 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.&nbsp;Our GuestElizabeth 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.&nbsp;Find the Museum at www.irish-us.org on Facebook and on Twitter. Subscribe to their YouTube channelOur ConversationDuring 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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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 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...

Our StoryBefore 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 GuestElizabeth 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.Find Elizabeth on her website, on Instagram @inspringoptimism, and Facebook.Our ConversationHospitality is an Irish tradition that dates back to the Brehon laws and 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.&nbsp; Hospitality is about more than feasts,&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;The Irish word for welcome is fáilteThis tale appears in the c. 1160 CE manuscript, The Book of Leinster, and is commonly called The Melody of the House of Buchet.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."&nbsp;billyandbeth.comWork with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her&nbsp;Healing for Heroines&nbsp;packages.She also offers&nbsp;<a...

Our StoryIn 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.&nbsp;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&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;Our ConversationThe way we find kinship with historical and mythical figures.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;&nbsp;The power of curiosity in cross-cultural conversations.&nbsp;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 Frederick Douglass Way in Dublin, Cork, and Belfast with professor Christine Kinealy.&nbsp;Diversity is about as more than demographic - it’s about diversity in experience and in ideas2020 discovery by archaeologists and geneticists: 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 podcast In Search of Black HistoryConnections across centuries and millenniaFor the record, the oldest pub in Dublin is the Brazen Head!Learn more about the AAIDN www.aaidnet.org/ and find them on Instagram @aaidnet&nbsp;Find Christian on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/chrisvschristian%20/?hl=en" rel="noopener

Our StoryThis 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 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 GuestRobyn Watt&nbsp; 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.&nbsp;Find Robyn at sacredearthgrove.com, in her online community oursacredcircles.com &amp; on Instagram @sacred.earth.groveOur ConversationRobyn begins with an invocation of the ancestors and the land as she tells a story inspired by the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk, where&nbsp; 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.&nbsp;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&nbsp;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&nbsp;to the ancient in a vital wayThe Fens were also home to Queen Boudicca’s Iceni tribe&nbsp;Resources and sources of inspiration: artist and author Katie Holton’s work with the Ardee Bog in County Louth;&nbsp; Francis Pryor’s book The Fens: Discovering England's Ancient Depths; Philip Pullman’s novel 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 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."&nbsp;billyandbeth.comWork with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her&nbsp;Healing for Heroines&nbsp;packages.She also...

Our StoryThe 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 GuestMelinda 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 on Instagram and on FacebookOur conversationThis 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 positivityMelinda’s story of losing her husband at age 31 and how that transformed her understanding of grief&nbsp;Power as held by royalty, the bards, and the druids as a parallel to the ruling elite, the media, and the religious establishmentThe play between the individual and the collective, as well as the result of toxic individualism&nbsp;Other forms and causes of grief, including climate grief and the grief caused by colonization and displacementThe 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 personalityThe primary sources for this retelling of the tale: Douglas Hyde's translation of Deirdre and Vernam Hill's translation of The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu. 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."&nbsp;billyandbeth.comWork with MarisaMarisa offers 1:1 coaching for Personal and Professional growth with her&nbsp;Healing for Heroines&nbsp;packages.She also offers&nbsp;Story Weaver Book Coaching&nbsp;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,&nbsp;The Sovereignty Knot&nbsp;www.marisagoudy.comFollow the show on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/knotworkpodcast/" rel="noopener...