KnotWork Myth & Storytelling

Marisa Goudy
  • 5.0 (28)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

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. 3d ago

    From Anu to Saint Anne: Stories of Grandmother Wisdom with Perdita Finn | S7 Ep14

    IN THIS EPISODEPerdita Finn returns to KnotWork for the third time to talk about the grandmothers, the mothers behind the mothers. She shares a story told in her latest book, Mothers of Magic: Summoning the Wisdom of Our Ancestors: discovering a hilltop church built by 19th century Irish immigrants and dedicated to St. Anne, the mother of Mary who holds the magic of being mother to us all. 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. They are currently at work on their next book together, Circles Not Lines: Spiritual Community Beyond Patriarchy. To find out more about her devotion to "ecology not theology," visit wayoftherose.org. In addition to extensive study with Zen masters, priests, spirit workers, and healers, she apprenticed with the psychic Susan Saxman, with whom she wrote The Reluctant Psychic. Perdita now teaches popular workshops on Getting to Know the Dead, empowering participants to activate the miracles in their own lives with the help of their ancestors and recover their own intuitive magic. Her book Take Back the Magic: Conversations with the Unseen World traces her recovery of these lost ways. Her newest book, Mothers of Magic: Summoning the Wisdom of Our Ancestors, is a map back to the maternal wisdom that has always been ours. She lives with her family in the moss-filled shadows of the Catskill Mountains. Find Perdita at: https://takebackthemagic.com/ OUR CONVERSATIONSt. Anne as folk memory of a goddess of Ireland and the Indo-European tradition: Anu or Danu. They contain "every story and no story.”Legends beneath the chapel: buried bones, caves, a mirrored room, and miracle healings that drew pilgrims for decadesPerdita’s grandmother’s mason jar of saved chicken wishbones. What it means to hold a wish in reserve for real crisis rather than spend it casuallyWhat gets transmitted between grandmother and grandchild without ever being spoken, including the Calabrian grandmother's sacred "No"We’re invited to understand we are being mothered by the dead and by the land, since "the dead and the land are one" PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOWLove KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings. Subscribe to Myth Workers' Hearth (via Substack): 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. 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

  2. Jul 30

    The Eagle Remembers: A Bardic Vision for Lughnasadh from Jonathon Huet | S7 Ep13

    OUR STORY “Lugh was a new type of hero, a hero that was needed then, a hero that is needed now. A hero who listens to everyone and anyone, and never strikes unless it's a just cause and never from anger or from revenge, but for the benefit of the whole.” In celebration of the festival of Lughnasadh, we receive a story of the god of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Lugh. Our storyteller, Jonathon Huet, steps into the role of Tuan mac Cairill, the seanchaí of old to unfold this tale. OUR GUEST Jonathon Huet is a woodsman, shamanic practitioner, naturalist, and bushcraft instructor. He is a creative, professional storyteller and speaker trained in bushcraft, woodcraft, and expedition leadership. Over the last thirty years he has researched and studied the folklore of the natural world of the British Isles, running workshops that explore the deep spiritual practices rooted in the sister islands of Britain and Ireland. His practice is grounded in full inclusivity, working with trauma, mental health, and wellbeing. For the past ten years he has trained with Caitlín Matthews and other teachers on the Walkers Between Worlds Shamanic Training Programme, which has deepened his connection further to nature and his ancestral lands. Substack: https://woodlandbard.substack.com/ Website: https://www.walkwithtrees.com OUR CONVERSATION The bittersweet nature of Lughnasadh, which is both a harvest festival and moment of sacrifice and grief. The first Lughnasah marked the goddess Tailtiu's death after she exhausted herself in the clearing of the fields. Both Yeats and Blake had unique language for joy and sorrow woven togetherThe question of a man’s relationship with the goddess and the unique guilt that emerges when examining the connection to the earth. The reclamation of wild masculine figures like Cernunnos and Herne the HunterJonathon's work with young people in care: holding space without judgment and offering experiences with the land and with nature.References to the work of John Moriarty: refusing to be "blackmailed into being a modern man" and understanding Ireland through Fódla consciousness rather than Éiru consciousness.Additional resources in this episode: William Sharp (writing as Fiona Macleod); RJ Steward; Caitlín Matthew’s book Sophia; Shonaleigh a drut’syla, a storyteller in a Jewish tradition: https://shonaleigh.uk/about/; Jennifer Murphy of the Celtic Creatives WORK WITH MARISA 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir, or are a wellness professional or creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.comLearn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groupsFollow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook. Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings. Subscribe to Myth Workers' Hearth: www.mythworkers.com

    The Eagle Remembers: A Bardic Vision for Lughnasadh from Jonathon Huet | S7 Ep13

  3. Jul 23

    All Ground Is Sacred Ground, A Story and Conversation with Mary Reynolds | S7 Ep12

    "If you want to save the planet, then start with your own patch of it." OUR GUEST Mary Reynolds is a reformed landscape designer who launched her international career by winning a gold medal for garden design at the Chelsea Flower Show in London in 2002. That story was later told in the movie, Dare to Be Wild. She is a bestselling author, activist, speaker, writer, RTÉ Guide columnist, and occasional television presenter. She is the founder of the global movement "We Are the ARK – Acts of Restorative Kindness to the Earth." Her mission is to inspire people to become guardians, not gardeners, of the land. Find more about Mary's Land Prayers, her books, including We Are The Ark: Returning Our Gardens to Their True Nature with Acts of Restorative Kindness, and all of her work at https://marymary.ie/ OUR STORY Mary tells us a story that could be the story of any little girl who finds her kin in the wild world. But it's not just any girl's story; it's Mary's own story of building a loving, enduring relationship with the plant kingdom. OUR CONVERSATION Mary's childhood experience in a fairy field as the origin point of her practice of listening to land. We can also experience that magic in a window box.What it means to be in true relationship with a place rather than in control of it. We find hope when we can see how quickly nature can recover.John Moriarty's line "all ground is sacred ground." (Listen to our episode with John's niece, Amanda Carmody in S6 Ep37.)The particular experience of Americans and Canadians and others living on colonized lands or places to which they do not feel connected. How to reckon with the history of settler colonialism and show up for the earth at this moment.Mary's case for ignoring the system rather than fighting it. How can we build parallel structures instead?Building community (meitheal) through the Irish language. Marisa's own parallel with a garden named "Obair," the Irish for work.Mary's reading of "An Oath of Entwinement," one of her land prayers WORK WITH MARISA 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir, or are a wellness professional or creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.comLearn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groupsFollow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook. Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings. Subscribe to Myth Workers' Hearth: www.mythworkers.com

    All Ground Is Sacred Ground, A Story and Conversation with Mary Reynolds | S7 Ep12

  4. Jul 16

    May the Roads Rise to Meet You: Following Macha’s Trail | S7 Ep11

    "The moment she reached the shoreline, she began walking, walking, walking. She didn't need a road, not when she had a stride this purposeful and undeterred." That's Macha, goddess and woman of the Sídhe, arriving in Ireland from her home in the Otherworld. It's the start of the terrible, fascinating tale from Irish mythology about the pregnant woman forced to race against the king's horses, and it's the heart of Marisa's latest full-length Turas episode, May the Roads Rise to Meet You: Following Macha's Trail, available exclusively to paid members of Myth Workers' Hearth over on Substack. In this episode, you’ll hear the story of Macha’s year with the mortal man she chose to love and the great betrayal that brought their affair to a devastating, world-altering conclusion. Does Macha run? Does Macha win? The full episode follows Macha's roads out past the finish line, into landscape, history, and myth well beyond Ulster. Join Myth Workers' Hearth to access the full episode and the complete Turas series. www.mythworkers.com KnotWork Myth & Storytelling is hosted by Marisa Goudy. New public episodes are released each week. WORK WITH MARISA 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, a memoir, or you’re seeking to weave the mythic perspective into your creative work, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.comLearn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groupsFollow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook. Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings.

    May the Roads Rise to Meet You: Following Macha’s Trail | S7 Ep11

  5. Jul 2

    To Fall from the Sky, To Cross Over the Sea: Stories and conversation with Kaitlin Curtice | S7 Ep10

    OUR STORY In the Potawatomi origin story, the pregnant Sky Woman, Giizhgokwe, falls from Sky World. She is caught by a flock of geese and lowered onto mshiké, Turtle, whose back becomes this continent we know as Turtle Island (known in Potawatomi as Mshike Minis). Our guest, Kaitlin Curtice weaves her ancestral story with her own story. As a young mother, walking a trail outside Atlanta while nursing her baby, she felt the presence of her ancestors. These were the women who had walked before her, those who mothered their own children on the 1838 Trail of Death when 800 Potawatomi people were forced from Indiana to Kansas over a two-month-long trek. OUR GUEST Kaitlin Curtice is an award-winning author, poet-storyteller, and enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi Nation. She writes and speaks at the intersections of indigenous spirituality, identity, and the stories that shape us. Her books include Native, Living Resistance, and her most recent, Everything Is a Story. She also writes at The Liminality Journal and is co-founder of the Aki Institute. Kaitlin lives near Philadelphia with her family. Find her at kaitlincurtice.com IN THIS CONVERSATION As the United States marks 250 years, Kaitlin reflects on indigenous grief around the Fourth of July. “Chemokmankik” which loosely means “land of the long butchering knives” is the Potawatomi word for the US. Spéirbhean, the sky woman of the Irish aisling tradition, and how Kaitlin found her resonance with Giizhgokwe across ocean and cultureAzho gami, the Potawatomi word for "across the sea," and what it means to carry that word onto an overnight flight to IrelandThe sacred reciprocity of kinship: why we need each other to grieve, to dream, and to build toward future generationsStart a practice of writing love notes to Segmekwé, Mother Earth, in order to begin repairing a fractured relationship with the land WORK WITH MARISA 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir, or are a wellness professional or creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.comLearn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groupsFollow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook. Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings. Subscribe to Myth Workers' Hearth: www.mythworkers.com

    To Fall from the Sky, To Cross Over the Sea: Stories and conversation with Kaitlin Curtice | S7 Ep10

  6. Jun 25

    The Village Beyond The Dunes | S7 Ep9

    It's the middle of the night. A wealthy woman sits alone by the fire, carding wool, when the first knock comes at the door. Open! Open! I am the Witch of One Horn! This is the opening of The Twelve Horned Women,” from Lady Jane Wilde's folklore collection Ancient Legends of Ireland. It’s one of several stories that Marisa weaves together in our latest full-length Turas episode, The Village Beyond the Dunes, available exclusively to paid members of Myth Workers' Hearth over on Substack. The Twelve Horned Women come down from Sliabh na mBan, the Mountain of Women in Co. Tipperary. They take over the woman’s house and make impossible demands. These witches from the Otherworld nearly get away with murder. But here's the question that haunts this story: were they invaders, or were they reclaiming what was always theirs? In the full Turas episode, Marisa explores how stories like this one teach us about community: its magic, its failures, its longing, and its wounds. From Tír na mBan to Avalon to a deserted village on Achill Island, The Village Beyond the Dunes walks the terrain of everything we've lost, everything we've dreamed, and everything that might still be possible. Join Myth Workers' Hearth to access the full episode and the complete Turas series. www.mythworkers.com KnotWork Myth & Storytelling is hosted by Marisa Goudy. New public episodes are released each week. WORK WITH MARISA 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, a memoir, or you’re seeking to weave the mythic perspective into your creative work, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.comLearn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groupsFollow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook. Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings.

    The Village Beyond The Dunes | S7 Ep9

  7. Jun 18

    Choosing the Mystery with Perdita Finn | S7 Ep8

    Our Story The rosary has long been used to shame women and restrain 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 offered a narrative that began with Eve’s sin and ended with apocalypse. Ordinary women were living and telling a different story. Theirs was a story that was expressed in a great circle, not in a straight line of patriarchal history. Perdita Finna unfolds the mysteries of the rosary, reclaiming the prayers and practice as an act of power. What if, all along, the beads are a story of women’s empowerment that’s been hidden in plain sight? Our Guest Perdita Finn is the author of Take Back the Magic: Conversations with the Unseen World, Mothers of Magic: Summoning the Wisdom of Our Ancestors, and with her husband Clark Strand The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary. She teaches popular workshops on connecting and collaborating with both the dead and the animate everything. She lives with her family in the moss-filled shadows of the Catskill Mountains. Joining Perdita’s free class coming up on June 25 at 8:30 PM ET. Register now for Long Story of Your Soul WORK WITH MARISA 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, a memoir, or you’re seeking to weave the mythic perspective into your creative work, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.comLearn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groupsFollow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook. Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings. Subscribe to Myth Workers' Hearth: www.mythworkers.com

    Choosing the Mystery with Perdita Finn | S7 Ep8

  8. Jun 11

    A Tale of Two Poets with Kate Chadbourne | S7 Ep7

    This episode is a medieval Irish permission slip for every creative who has ever felt too raw, too unformed, or too messy to call themselves a writer. It’s for anyone whose inner critic has tried to kill the emerging work before it could grow. OUR STORY From the Book of Leinster (c. 1160): a strange, silent boy who hasn't spoken in fourteen years. A blacksmith father who knows how to protect what isn't ready yet. And the chief poet of Ireland, who recognizes genius before anyone else does — and has to decide what to do about it. OUR GUEST Kate Chadbourne is a storyteller, singer, harper, and poet, professor of Irish language and folklore, and founder of The Celtic Wisdom School. Her debut novel, The Poet on the Train, was published in 2025. Find her at https://www.katechadbourne.com/. She tells stories each week over on YouTube @katechadbournebard IN THIS EPISODE: The Irish proverb (or seanfhocail) Bíonn gach tosú lag. Every beginning is weak. You contain both poets. Amergin, the instinctual, unschooled self and Athairne, the credentialed institutional self are both necessary. The danger is when one swings an ax at the other.Feel for the bruise. Pick up your poem like an apple and find where the energy has gone soft — then ask every part to rise to the aliveness of the best part.Put a flower on your house. Blátham — I bloom, I flourish. Making beauty for its own sake, even a sticker in a journal no one will ever see, is the practice.Completing something changes you. Kate shares the moment midway through writing her novel when the inner Athairne told her to stop. She kept going. Finishing, by your own standards, for yourself, is its own transformation.Write with Amergin, revise with Athairne. Kate and Marisa's upgrade on Hemingway's "write drunk, edit sober."Father Dineen's Foclóir Gaedhilge agus Béarla The Poet on the Train by Kate Chadbourne WORK WITH MARISA 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a novel, a memoir, or you’re seeking to weave the mythic perspective into your creative work, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.comLearn about our global writing communities, the Authors' Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groupsFollow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook. Music by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SHOW Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid Myth Workers' Hearth subscriber, you'll have access to Turas and be invited to our monthly Myth Workers' Hearth Gatherings. Subscribe to Myth Workers' Hearth: www.mythworkers.com

    A Tale of Two Poets with Kate Chadbourne | S7 Ep7
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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
    135
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Marisa Goudy
  • Show Website
    KnotWork Myth & Storytelling

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