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

    The Reddest Red & the Brightest Sun with Matthew Stillman | S7Ep17

    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) 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 Love the show? Subscribe to Myth Workers' Hearth on Substack to support KnotWork Myth & Storytelling and join our community of myth, land, and living wonder. www.mythworkers.com

    The Reddest Red & the Brightest Sun with Matthew Stillman | S7Ep17

  2. 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

  3. Sep 3

    Grandmother Spider: Trusting the Threads with Kara Simons | S7 Ep15

    Join Us at the Retreat! Meaning-Making: Claiming & Interpreting Signs November 6-8, 2026, near Philadelphia Kara will lead us over a weekend of asking for, recognizing, and trusting in the signs that the universe is constantly sending your way. Marisa joins as a guest facilitator teaching about Myth Working for Meaning Makers. Space is limited. Learn more and register now: www.joyfulresonance.com/retreat OUR STORY A raven, a spider, a river. Kara Simons shares the story of a visionary journey that helped her navigate a health crisis and then rebuild trust in her own body and her own creativity. OUR GUEST Kara Simons, founder of Joyful Resonance, is an author, attorney, and oracle deck creator. Her original decks, Prairie Majesty Oracle and Song of the Grandmothers Oracle, have sold thousands of copies worldwide. Through inspired wordweaving, Kara anchors portals in her workshops and retreats for experiencing magic as real. Feeling leads to believing leads to trusting—and taking action. Her latest book, You Belong Here, has just been released. Find Kara at www.joyfulresonance.com OUR CONVERSATION A thyroid diagnosis became a message about how Kara had tried to earn love through productivity. This is the story of what it took to actually listen to her body and her own needs.Grandmother Spider's role as Kara's creative guideReframing grandmother energy as something ageless and genderless, not confined to a kitchen or a bloodline“Make believe" and "real" are a false binary when it comes to imagination and spiritThe quest for signs, symbols, and nudges from the universeKara's new book, You Belong Here, and its exploration of identity, safety, and purpose. 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

    Grandmother Spider: Trusting the Threads with Kara Simons | S7 Ep15

  4. Aug 27

    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

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

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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
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out of 5
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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
    138
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Marisa Goudy
  • Show Website
    KnotWork Myth & Storytelling

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