Celtic Medicine Stories

Kat Houghton PhD
  • 5.0 (5)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Biweekly

Myths, wonder tales and folklore from the Celtic lands with an eye to personal transformation adventuresintheotherworld.substack.com

  1. Rhiannon

    Jun 21

    Rhiannon

    The medicine story I offer to you today comes from the deeper layers of the Brythonic Celtic culture, the people who are my ancestors and once stewarded most of the island of Briton. They are known as the Britons and continue on as the Welsh. This story was re-discovered in the modern era in a Old Welsh text known as The Mabinogi that we think was written in the 1200s. Many scholars and most storytellers understand the stories in this text to be much older, having been carried in the oral tradition for generations previously. The story of Rhiannon is a continuation of the story of Pwyll and Arawn (my telling here) and Rhiannon and Pwyll (my telling here) completing the First Branch of the Mabinogi. It’s not an easy story. I’ve resisted telling it for some time. But that is often the way of medicine stories, they take some swallowing down, some digesting, before they give up their secrets. I told this story recently at the monthly women’s story and song circle I hold with Jennifer Armstrong (Honey for Your Heart on Substack) and the reflections from the other women opened it up even deeper for me. We leant into the wisdom of surrendering into the mystery of life, of not needing to know or be seen to be right, to simply let life show the way. I’m curious to know what this tale brings forth in you. Learn more about me here: https://www.ancestralconnection.earth To delve deeper into the images and archetypes that stand out for you in this story I invite you to subscribe to the free email course: Working with Archetypes here https://soul.kathoughton.com/working-with-archetypes Thanks for reading Adventures in the Otherworld! This post is public so feel free to share it. Get full access to Adventures in the Otherworld at adventuresintheotherworld.substack.com/subscribe

    29 min

  2. Apr 5

    Tatterhood

    This is one of my favorite tales. It calls to the wild part of me, the one that longs to sleep on the earth and find moss in my hair. The story follows the thread of the balance between the wild and the domesticated It warns us of the lack of fertility that seeps into life when we live too far from the earth. It strikes me that this is not a modern problem. This story was first written down in Norway in the mid 1800s and shares many themes with Celtic tales. I’m curious what medicine it might carry for you. To delve deeper into the images and archetypes that stand out for you in this story I invite you to subscribe to the free email course: Working with Archetypes here https://soul.kathoughton.com/working-with-archetypes Get full access to Adventures in the Otherworld at adventuresintheotherworld.substack.com/subscribe

    29 min

  3. Jan 10

    Merlin: Prophesy from the Forest

    This one again. This story won’t leave me alone. This is a re-telling of Merlin’s story as it comes through me often. We have little on record of this battle, the battle of Arfderydd recorded in the year 573. It’s location is thought to have been in what is now an old field just north of the Scottish- English border. And it is recorded as one of the three futile battles of Britain. It is also recorded that this is the battle in which merlin went mad and spend 3 days and 3 nights without food, drink or sleep in the wildwood. In this telling the story of the battle and what happened after is my imagining - having spend time up there on that land and time fasting out in the woods. the prophesy at the end of this telling has been recorded in multiple ways in multiple texts. I recommend you give yourself some space to listen to this one. It’s not good driving material. It might require you to dig into your own loss, and what we’ve lost collectively. And from that the seeds of knowing push through the dark soil bringing new life. I invite you to reflect on what it might mean to turn yourself into soil. To delve deeper into the images and archetypes that stand out for you in this story I invite you to subscribe to the free email course: Working with Archetypes here https://soul.kathoughton.com/working-with-archetypes Get full access to Adventures in the Otherworld at adventuresintheotherworld.substack.com/subscribe

    32 min

  4. 12/21/2025

    The Old Women Who Gather (16)

    This story captured my heart when I first heard it. It comes from the Irish Travelers tradition and is recorded in a beautiful book called "Why the Moon Travels" by Oein BeBhairduin. These tales stand out to me as distinct from most other Celtic tales that I have come across, they explain the origins of things in a way I am used to coming across in Native American stories but not Celtic ones. This story carries a world wide theme of women who work to spin and weave in addition to plant lore and magical instruction. All in a short little folktale! I offer this as an honoring to all those who work for benefit of others and the ancestors who got us here. I highly recommend Oein's book, there's a link here to purchase a copy. Enjoy.To delve deeper into the images and archetypes that stand out for you in this story I invite you to subscribe to the free email course: Working with Archetypes here https://soul.kathoughton.com/working-with-archetypes Get full access to Adventures in the Otherworld at adventuresintheotherworld.substack.com/subscribe

    10 min

  5. 09/28/2025

    The Song of the Selkie

    Stories of the seal people are prevalent all along the west coast of Ireland and Scotland and up into the Faroe Islands. if you’ve spend any time wandering the shorelines of those places you’ll know why - the seals are very present, you can hear them breathing and see their big, brown eyes watching you as they hover on that threshold between sky and water. And if you’r lucky you might see them on that other threshold between water and land. There’s a whole genre of folktales about the seal folk that were carried for countless generations by tellers in clans that claimed to be descended from them. This is one take that has found it’s way around many storytelling circles and I read the bones of it in Sharon Blackie’s book, If Women Rose Rooted. It’s full of mythic themes of transformation and the power of experiencing loss, and what happens when we refuse to experience loss, which I won’t attempt to explain but instead let the story do it’s work with you. To delve deeper into the images and archetypes that stand out for you in this story I invite you to subscribe to the free email course: Working with Archetypes here https://soul.kathoughton.com/working-with-archetypes Get full access to Adventures in the Otherworld at adventuresintheotherworld.substack.com/subscribe

    29 min

  6. 07/13/2025

    The Fairy Midwife

    There are variations of the Fairy Midwife story from up and down the British Isles, it seems to be ubiquitous and wound deep into the fabric of Celtic lore. This is my own telling of this old story that highlights the complex role midwives have played in our cultures. These women who stand at the portal between the worlds assist in births, and deaths, and the opening to The Otherworld in more ways than we tend to recognize. The midwife reminds us that the Otherworld is always there, always available, if we just have the eyes to see and the ears to listen. Learn more about me here: https://www.ancestralconnection.earth To delve deeper into the images and archetypes that stand out for you in this story I invite you to subscribe to the free email course: Working with Archetypes here https://soul.kathoughton.com/working-with-archetypes Get full access to Adventures in the Otherworld at adventuresintheotherworld.substack.com/subscribe

    18 min

  7. 02/01/2025

    13: Rhiannon and Pwyll

    This is the second part of the first branch of the Mabinogi that we began in the last episode. These tales carried in the oral tradition of the ancient Britons contain teachings about how to be. Here our hero, Pwyll Prince of Dyfed, faces more trials as he learns about the importance of consent and generosity from a female tutor. Rhiannon is a beguiling figure who appears from the Otherworld but moves into the human realm over the course of this and the next installment. She carries much wisdom. Her name is a mystery, some scholars suggest it may mean Great Queen. She is strongly associated with horses and the European Celtic goddess Epona, as will become clear in the following episode. These stories were written down 900 years ago in Medieval Wales but were likely told for countless generations before that up and down the land where the ancient Celtic Britons roamed, before the Romans, Anglos, Saxons or Normans. Learn more about me here: https://www.ancestralconnection.earth To delve deeper into the images and archetypes that stand out for you in this story I invite you to subscribe to the free email course: Working with Archetypes here https://soul.kathoughton.com/working-with-archetypes Get full access to Adventures in the Otherworld at adventuresintheotherworld.substack.com/subscribe

    24 min

  8. 12/14/2024

    Becoming Wisdom: Pwyll and Arawn

    Nine hundred years ago in Medieval Wales, an unknown author wrote down tales that have been carried in the oral tradition for at least 2,000 years. Some think this collection of tales, known as The Mabinogion, is much older than that. This story, about Pwyll Prince of Dyfed is set before the Saxons, before the Romans, in a time when the native Brittons roamed freely across most of what is now Wales, England and Scotland. The Mabinogion are thought to be a collection of teaching tales for young nobles. This first one is a story of male initiation. Pwyll’s mentor shows up as Arawn King of Annwfn, which is the Welsh Otherworld. Annwfn translates as the very deep, inner world. This is an encounter with the Magical Huntsman who appears frequently in Celtic lore, you may have come across him as Gwyn ap Nudd. Whomever wrote down these stories put a Christian veneer on them, but the bulk of them remain decidedly pre-Christian. This is the first section of what is knows as the First Branch of the Mabinogi, there are two more sections in the branch and three more branches. I'll be recording re-tellings of the other parts over the next few months. Adventures in the Otherworld is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Learn more about me here: https://www.kathoughton.com/ To delve deeper into the images and archetypes that stand out for you in this story I invite you to subscribe to the free email course: Working with Archetypes here https://soul.kathoughton.com/working-with-archetypes Get full access to Adventures in the Otherworld at adventuresintheotherworld.substack.com/subscribe

    20 min
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About

Myths, wonder tales and folklore from the Celtic lands with an eye to personal transformation adventuresintheotherworld.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Kat Houghton PhD
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    19
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Kat Houghton
  • Show Website
    Celtic Medicine Stories

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