What is a Good Life? #94 - Listening To The Story Of My Soul with Jennifer Murphy

On the 94th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I am delighted to introduce our guest, Jennifer Murphy. Jennifer is an Irish mythologist, anthropologist, creativity mentor, and the founder of The Celtic Creatives. A Dubliner born and bred, from the time she could talk, Jennifer's grandmother, Frances O'Sullivan, filled her ears with tales from Irish myth and folklore, fuelling a now 40-year fascination with the stories of her lineage. Jennifer's apprenticeship in following her soul’s breadcrumbs over the past twenty years has guided her work and formal studies in Medieval Irish and Celtic Studies, Sociocultural Anthropology, Creativity and Innovation, and Jungian Psychology and Art Therapy. She supports creatives from diverse fields to (re)connect with the mythopoetic imagination of Ireland, using ancient wisdom to inform modern creativity through myth, dreamwork, imagination, and the body. She is currently writing a book on what Irish mythology can teach us about our creativity.

In this glorious conversation, Jennifer shares her journey of listening to her soul’s story—a path which has revealed her Dán (soul’s gift) and includes balancing the masculine and feminine, Sus and Imbas—the scientific and divine inspiration—exploring dreams, other worlds, and Irish mythology, and imbuing everything around us with life.

This whole episode may offer you many new lines of inquiry, as well as ways of perceiving this world, which may be integral to experiencing your own good life.

Subscribe for weekly episodes, every Tuesday, and check out my YouTube channel (link below) for full interviews and clips.

For further content and information check out the following:

Jen's Website: https://www.celticcreatives.com/

Jen's Substack: https://celticcreatives.substack.com/

Jen's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/celticembodiment/

- For the What is a Good Life? podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos
- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/
- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/

Contact me at mark@whatisagood.life if you'd like to explore your own lines of self-inquiry through 1-on-1 coaching, take part in my weekly free silent conversations, discuss experiences I create to stimulate greater trust, communication, and connection, amongst your leadership teams, or you simply want to get in touch.

00:00 Introduction
03:00 What is my Dán (Soul’s gift)?

09:48 Taking up the path of the soul

15:00 Wisdom: Sus and Imbas

20:00 Balancing masculine and feminine energy

23:30 Exploring the masculine & unconscious

27:30 Mythology - exploring the story of the soul

30:30 Exploring dreams & other worlds

33:30 The land is alive with soul

35:30 Other worlds & connecting with land

39:10 Reconnecting to the divine

45:40 The Irish psyche & mythology

49:48 Connecting with the language and folklore

55:30 What is a good life for Jen?