KnotWork Myth & Storytelling

Marisa Goudy

On KnotWork, we explore the mythology and folklore of Ireland, and beyond. Episodes begin with a story, followed by a deep dive conversation about how this age-old tale still resonates today. Our guests include oral storytellers, writers, artists, musicians, and spiritual leaders. Occasionally, in our Myth Workers and Culture Makers series, our guest offers a song, a meditation, or another bit of creative magic. We talk about what it means to live a myth-inspired life. These conversations explore our relationship to land and to identity, particularly related to what it means to be Irish and a member of the Irish diaspora. Whether you’re drawn to Celtic culture or the mysteries that linger at ancient sacred sites, or whether you just like a good story and expansive conversation, you’re in the right place. Welcome. Fáilte. Your host is Marisa Goudy, author of The Sovereignty Knot: A Woman’s Way to Freedom, Power, Love, and Magic. She is a myth worker, a story healer, a writing coach who lives on the lands of the Lenape people (New York’s Hudson Valley). She holds an MA in Irish literature from University College Dublin.

  1. 2d ago

    The Cailleach Weaving Through Our Bones, Song & Conversation with Sionnáin | S7 Ep23

    OUR STORY In this episode from our archives, Irish songcarrier Sionnáin offers an ode to the Cailleach called “The Wise One” - a deep, powerful conversation about ancient tradition and living lore. OUR GUEST Sionnáin is a song carrier, ceremonialist and guide from the West of Ireland. She walks a path devoted to tending the threads of lineage, landscape and language. Through her living relationship with song, ceremony and kinship, she is remembering and returning to her native language. For the last three years she has been deeply connected with the Caoineadh (Keening) tradition of Ireland. She has been listening to how parts of this ancient practice are calling to be woven into our culture as a rite of passage for these times. Sionnáin loves to create spaces where the waters of wisdom in your own body can flow forth with ease. These are spaces for healing, remembrance and resonance, held in the Dreamtime. Here your prayers and your heart’s deepest longings can be felt, held and nourished through the songlines of these isles. Her work is supported by her studies in Quantum Coherence Therapy, Yoga Nidra, Yin Yoga, and Voice and Sound. Together with her rich life journey, kinships and initiations, these give shape and depth to the spaces of care, community and connection she shares. Find Sionnáin on IG at shannonsoulsounds Find all the links to her current work. OUR CONVERSATIONThe song, “The Wise One,” was born beside the fire at the Paps of Anu in County Kerry.The Cailleach is the wise old woman, the sacred hag, grandmother essence, and according to some traditions in Éire and Alba (Scotland), the goddess who created the land itself. Cailleach is rooted in contrast - she is strong and fierce, but also soft and nurturing.Caoineadh - the ancient Irish lament tradition (Anglicized as “keen”). The mná chaointe, keening women who would perform the ritual of grief at the wake. For more: visit Mary McLaughlin, a scholar and keeper of the wisdom of the tradition.The legacy of grief related to An tOcras Mór or An Gorta Mor, the famine or the Great Hunger.The conscious choice to open and receive the ancestors, the songs, the magicTuam: the Galway town and site of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home from 1925-1961, where the remains of 796 babies were found in a disused septic tank.Ireland’s Samhain community traditions that were about sharing and visiting, rather than the commercialized version we have today. SUPPORT THE SHOWLove the show? Subscribe to Myth Workers’ Hearth on Substack to support KnotWork Myth & Storytelling and join our community. www.mythworkers.com WORK WITH MARISA1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, memoir, or visionary creative nonfiction, book a free consultation with Marisa at www.marisagoudy.com Join our global writing community, the Authors’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook. Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

    The Cailleach Weaving Through Our Bones, Song & Conversation with Sionnáin | S7 Ep23

  2. Oct 23

    Why Is She Calling Us Now? Niamh, Oisín and the Irish Language in Liminal Times with Dian Killian | S7 Ep22

    OUR STORYThe days of the great Fianna warriors have ended. Unexpectedly, Oisín is invited to live out his retirement in the Otherworld and become husband to Niamh on Tír na nÓg, the Land of Youth. How long is too long in paradise? Despite his love for his new wife and children, Oisín is destined to end his days at home in Ireland. OUR GUESTDian Killian is the author of The Gaelic Effect, a popular publication on Substack, where she explores linguistic archaeology, human experience and potential, through the lens of Irish language, place and culture. Her writing is informed by a background in applied linguistics, Irish cultural studies, conflict resolution, and work as a professional coach. In addition to The Gaelic Effect, she is the author of two books (Connecting across Differences and Urban Empathy: True Life Adventures of Compassion on the Streets of New York), and is also an artist and musician. She lives in Dublin and frequently travels around Ireland, including to the Gaeltacht. The Gaelic Effect: https://diankillian.substack.com OUR CONVERSATIONLike mythical characters who live between this world and the Otherworld, we know what it means to be liminal creatures living in liminal times.Coming to Irish as an adult: beginner’s mind, humility, and meeting the language with loveThe Irish words for wife and husband, bean chéile and fear chéile, emphasize how it’s a language built on relationship rather than ownershipIrish employs many of the principles of Nonviolent CommunicationHow the modern Irish language embodies the aisling (“vision poem”) and the spéirbhean (“sky woman”)Also in this episode: Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Spenser, Joyce and Beckett, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta, and Manchán MaganMarisa’s story of Tír na nÓg at the start of the show is based on Marie Heaney’s telling in Over Nine Waves. SUPPORT THE SHOWLove the show? Subscribe to Myth Workers’ Hearth on Substack to support KnotWork Myth & Storytelling and join our community. www.mythworkers.com WORK WITH MARISA1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, memoir, or visionary creative nonfiction, book a free consultation with Marisa at www.marisagoudy.com Join our global writing community, the Authors’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook. Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

    Why Is She Calling Us Now? Niamh, Oisín and the Irish Language in Liminal Times with Dian Killian | S7 Ep22

  3. Oct 15

    The Hare, the Witch, and the Tower with Katy Swift | S7 Ep21

    OUR STORYDeep in the forest in the Scottish Borders, there’s a hidden cottage that’s home to a shapeshifting witch. In this ghost story, a handsome, duplicitous laird falls in love with the woman who can turn into a hare, and his entire world is turned upside down. OUR GUESTKaty Swift is a storyteller, maker, mother, and lifelong gatherer of the stories, skills, and ways of living that root us back into the more-than-human world. A Northumbrian lass with Highland and island heritage on her father’s side, she has made her home in Scotland for nearly twenty years and carries that lineage forward through her love of the Gàidhlig language and the old tales. Today she lives in the Scottish Borders with her partner and their two wee boys, in a landscape thick with ballads, hawthorns, and haunted towers. These threads come together in The Wildcraft Way, her online course and community for families who want to walk the Celtic Wheel of the Year together through foraging, herbal remedies, seasonal recipes, Waldorf-inspired songs, traditional skills, and the stories that have always marked the turning of the year. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mama.moon.storytelling The Wildcraft Way: https://www.epiphany-learning.com/program/wildcraft-way-samhain-and-introduction OUR CONVERSATIONThis story takes place at Littledean Tower, a lesser-known Borders ruin where visitors still report a feeling of uneaseFrom the Flames We Rise, a 2023 gathering at Traquair honoring the folk burned as witches in Peebles, and the new memorial on Tweed GreenStories as living, evolving things, retold and embellished around the cèilidh fire all winter longIsobel Gowdie of Auldearn and her 1662 confessions of hare shape-shifting, flight, and the King and Queen of the FairiesListening from both places: skepticism, belief, and a Gaelic otherworld that waits at crossroads, woodland edges, and beneath the hawthornGuising, turnip lanterns, and what American Halloween has kept and lost of SamhainLaying a place at the table for the year’s deadHow to Kill a Witch by Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi of the Witches of Scotland podcast SUPPORT THE SHOWLove the show? Subscribe to Myth Workers’ Hearth on Substack to support KnotWork Myth & Storytelling and join our community. www.mythworkers.com WORK WITH MARISA1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, memoir, or visionary creative nonfiction, book a free consultation with Marisa at www.marisagoudy.com Join our global writing community, the Authors’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook. Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

    The Hare, the Witch, and the Tower with Katy Swift | S7 Ep21

  4. Oct 8

    The Buried Moon with Mitlé Southey | S7 Ep20

    OUR STORYWe return to the archives for a story of the Fens of East Anglia, retold by Mitlé Southey. The moon becomes trapped in a marsh pool. Without her light, the bogles and beasts of the darkness take over the Fens. Through a combination of community care and the wisdom of the old woman at the edge of the bog, the local people 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. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gatherwithmitle Substack: https://mitle.substack.com/ OUR CONVERSATIONWe can see ourselves in every character and every element of the more-than-human-world in this story. This is a story of community and connection and of Sister Moon who is so caught up in overgiving that she loses track of her own needs.The power of the unknown and finding answers when people come together as a community.The mark of the heroine: the “do it together” ethic as an alternative to the hero’s journey.Mitlé’s experience of holding circles, both in person and online, and how we are called to continue to adaptHow the “architecture of circle” can help us today. What is being included or suppressed in a circle? What is said or unsaid? The power of silences and words? Conversations about power and biases, and what perspectives are welcomed into a space.Western culture’s limits of time and how it contrasts with indigenous cultures where circles last as long as they need to go.What we can learn from indigenous traditions that gathered in circle. Questions of cultural appropriation and Inclusion.Mitlé’s source: from the folklore collected by Mrs. M.C. Balfour from the 1890s. SUPPORT THE SHOWLove the show? Subscribe to Myth Workers’ Hearth on Substack to support KnotWork Myth & Storytelling and join our community. www.mythworkers.com WORK WITH MARISA1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, memoir, or visionary creative nonfiction, book a free consultation with Marisa at www.marisagoudy.com Join our global writing community, the Authors’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook. Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

    The Buried Moon with Mitlé Southey | S7 Ep20

  5. Oct 1

    Not End Times, But Mountain Time | S7 Ep19

    OUR STORYMis staggers away from a gruesome battle on Kerry’s Dingle coast and finds a home in the mountains. Over 200 years, she becomes at one with the wild, covered in feathers and living completely apart from the human world. Eventually, the harper Dubh Ruis finds a gentle way to bring her home. HEAR THE WHOLE STORYThis preview episode is part of our Turas series. Upgrade your membership to support KnotWork Myth & Storytelling and unlock your access to Turas, the subscriber-only podcast series, plus monthly invitations to gather live with the Myth Workers' Hearth community. Subscribe: www.mythworkers.com IN THIS EPISODEWhy "apocalypse" doesn't mean the end of the world, at its ancient Greek root, but an uncovering or unveilingNaomi Klein and Astra Taylor's new book End Times Fascism and the Fight for the Living World, and the "politics of Hereness" inspired by the Jewish Labor BundThe Battle of Ventry, instigated by the invading Dáire Donn (the self-styled King of the World)How the story reads differently at different points in a life, from a young feminist grad student to nowNuala Ní Dhomhnaill's essay, ‘Mis and Dubh Ruis: A Parable of Psychic Transformation in Irish Writers and ReligionSources for the story: The Druid's Cauldron retelling — https://thedruidscauldron.org/2022/10/17/mis-and-dubh-ruis/, and Brian Ó Cuív's edition via Corpas na Gaeilge — https://corpas.ria.ie/index.php?fsg_function=3&fsg_id=492 SUPPORT THE SHOWLove the show? Subscribe to Myth Workers’ Hearth on Substack to support KnotWork Myth & Storytelling and join our community. www.mythworkers.com WORK WITH MARISA1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, memoir, or visionary creative nonfiction, book a free consultation with Marisa at www.marisagoudy.com Join our global writing community, the Authors’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook. Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

    Not End Times, But Mountain Time | S7 Ep19

  6. Sep 24

    From the Archives: The Driftwood Man with Dee Mulrooney | S7 Ep18

    OUR STORY“Driftwood Man” is a timeless tale of longing and belonging, existential homesickness and ultimately coming home that’s at once 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 GUESTBased in Berlin, Dee Mulrooney weaves a rich tapestry of experiences, emotions, and insights into her creative practice. Rooted in the complexities of inhabiting a female body, her work emerges from the profound influences of her upbringing as a working-class Irish woman in the patriarchal, misogynistic landscape of 1970s Catholic Ireland. Her background profoundly shapes her identity and informs her artistic journey, where she fluidly navigates drawing, painting, writing, performing, filmmaking, and music. Through her alter ego, Growler—a vibrant, full-body vulva costume—she channels the voices of women past, transforming pain into powerful storytelling and performance. This character is a nod to her ancestors. Growler embodies the spirit of resilience, connecting generations and facilitating healing. With over two decades of experience as an educator, Dee champions community and empowerment, drawing inspiration from celebrated artists and the potent power of women's narratives. Find Dee at deirdre-mulrooney.com, on Instagram, Tiktok, and FB SUPPORT THE SHOWLove the show? Subscribe to Myth Workers’ Hearth on Substack to support KnotWork Myth & Storytelling and join our community. www.mythworkers.com WORK WITH MARISA1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, memoir, or visionary creative nonfiction, book a free consultation with Marisa at www.marisagoudy.com Join our global writing community, the Authors’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook. Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

    From the Archives: The Driftwood Man with Dee Mulrooney | S7 Ep18

  7. Sep 17

    The Reddest Red & the Brightest Sun with Matthew Stillman | S7 Ep17

    OUR STORYNobody believes Phaeton's claim to divine heritage: Helios, the sun god, is his father. The boy sets out on a quest to find his dad, and when they're finally united, Helios promises to fulfill one wish. Phaeton asks to drive the chariot of the sun for a day. It all ends in fire, ruin, and a geomyth. OUR CONVERSATIONMatthew opens with Z.R. Ghani's poem "The Reddest Red." Full text of poem. Ovid's telling of Helios and Phaeton as a geomyth, a story that may preserve the memory of a real meteor that streaked over Greece centuries before it was ever written downHow myth takes time: a "mythically literate" people needed centuries to turn a single terrifying event into a story that could be held and retoldA detour into Manchán Magan's theory that Cú Chulainn's warp spasm may encode a meteor sighting, tooTravel, the personal spiritual quest, and the "forward-leading wake" that changes a place as more people go there to experience itMatthew's course, Committed to Heart, Committed to Memory, and his "conviviums," communal practices of memorizing and reciting poetry together online OUR GUESTMatthew Stillman is a life-long New Yorker, a lover of language, culture, and a practitioner of bigger questions, wondering aloud, and sitting in mystery. He has spent a lifetime studying and practicing with aspects of Eastern and Western spiritual discipline, alongside years of deep engagement with long-form improvisational comedy. He is the author of Genesis Deflowered, a book of biblical erotica written in Elizabethan English that looks at how we might heal the fracture between sex and spirit in our culture. Matthew is also the conceiver and producer of The End of Poverty?, a feature-length documentary about the origins of poverty and why it persists in a world with so much wealth. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Directors' Choice commendation, and Matthew has spoken at the UN four times about it. He started a skin care company, Primal Derma, where he works to reclaim older, forgotten threads connecting the health of place, animals, and humans. At the end of the episode, you'll hear about Matthew's current project, in which he teaches the dusty and deeply beautiful skill of poetry memorization and recitation through his online course, Committed to Heart, Committed to Memory. Classes are starting now. Learn more at stillmansays.substack.com Find Matthew at: @stillmansays (IG) / Committed To Heart, Committed To Memory (FB) SUPPORT THE SHOWLove the show? Subscribe to Myth Workers’ Hearth on Substack to support KnotWork Myth & Storytelling and join our community. www.mythworkers.com WORK WITH MARISA1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, memoir, or visionary creative nonfiction, book a free consultation with Marisa at www.marisagoudy.com Join our global writing community, the Authors’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook. Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

    The Reddest Red & the Brightest Sun with Matthew Stillman | S7 Ep17

  8. Sep 10

    Because She Could Not Stop for Death: An Irish Goddess in the Afterlife | S7 Ep16

    OUR STORY According to traditional Irish myth, Tailtiu, the foster mother of Lugh of the Tuatha Dé Danann, uproots a vast forest with an axe and her own two hands. The plains she clears become the site of the great festival of Lughnasadh and once the people begin planting crops on these vast fields, agriculture comes to Ireland. She wasn't there to see it. She died from exhaustion, having done all the work alone. One source says that Tailtiu was in bondage to the men of Ireland, but what does that actually mean? In this retelling, Tailtiu is a queen and a goddess who belongs to several worlds. The question Marisa asks in this story: was Tailtiu ordered to clear those fields, or did she merely believe she had no choice? And then what happens after Tailtiu dies? In this reimagining of what comes after the traditional story ends, Tailtiu arrives in Tír na mBan, the Land of Women, where she comes to understand her worth is rooted in so much more than her capacity to work. Past KnotWork episodes featuring Tailtiu: A Mother’s Love, A Mother’s Sacrifice: Tailtiu and Lugh | S5 Ep9 The Eagle Remembers: A Bardic Vision for Lughnasadh with Jonathon Huet | S7 Ep13 HEAR THE WHOLE STORY This preview episode is part of our Turas series. Upgrade your membership to support KnotWork Myth & Storytelling and unlock your access to Turas, the subscriber-only podcast series, plus monthly invitations to gather live with the Myth Workers' Hearth community. Subscribe: www.mythworkers.com WORK WITH MARISA 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, memoir, or visionary creative nonfiction, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com Learn about our global writing community, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook. Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

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5
out of 5
28 Ratings

About

On KnotWork, we explore the mythology and folklore of Ireland, and beyond. Episodes begin with a story, followed by a deep dive conversation about how this age-old tale still resonates today. Our guests include oral storytellers, writers, artists, musicians, and spiritual leaders. Occasionally, in our Myth Workers and Culture Makers series, our guest offers a song, a meditation, or another bit of creative magic. We talk about what it means to live a myth-inspired life. These conversations explore our relationship to land and to identity, particularly related to what it means to be Irish and a member of the Irish diaspora. Whether you’re drawn to Celtic culture or the mysteries that linger at ancient sacred sites, or whether you just like a good story and expansive conversation, you’re in the right place. Welcome. Fáilte. Your host is Marisa Goudy, author of The Sovereignty Knot: A Woman’s Way to Freedom, Power, Love, and Magic. She is a myth worker, a story healer, a writing coach who lives on the lands of the Lenape people (New York’s Hudson Valley). She holds an MA in Irish literature from University College Dublin.

Information

  • Creator
    Marisa Goudy
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    144
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Marisa Goudy
  • Show Website
    KnotWork Myth & Storytelling

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