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Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together. As a paid subscriber you'll be invited to join us for the Myth Workers' Salon and keep in touch with the show during my upcoming Imbolc sabbatical.

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OUR STORY

A sacred Immram, the great voyage of a birthing mother goddess. In this story, presented in both Irish and English, you’ll meet Brigid, Danu, and the midwife, the bean ghlúine who held the portal of life and death and helped bring new babes into the world.

OUR GUEST

Sarah Richardson is the author of WOMAN: A Guide to Living Your Best Life by Setting Yourself Free and Coming Home to Your True Self. A midwife of conscious conception, birth, death & rebirth. A woman of the medicine way. Sarah brings over 15 years of experience in the medical field as a registered midwife and the mysteries, which is steeped in her lineage. Her work is a safe welcoming hand — and a cheeky wink — across the veil, guiding others into deeper connection with the unseen and the ancestors. She serves as a living portal into the otherworld, inviting others to remember, reclaim, reconnect and rejoice in the fullness of their authentic selves. Her soul’s devotion is to the Goddess in all her forms — restoring our connection to our sacred source so we can receive the radiant, embodied BIG life that is our birthright. She is the Founder of the Womb & Word Collective and the Co-Founder of Dream Midwifery.

Subscribe to Sarah's Substack, The Womb & Word Collective and her collaboration with Jen Murphy, Dream Midwifery

Find her on Instagram @sarahrichardsonauthor.ie and at www.sarahrichardson.ie

IN THIS EPISODE

1. The significance of Brigid’s Day and the season of Imbolc
2. Sarah’s description of the Four Faces of the Ancient Irish Grandmothers:
3. Bean Ghlúine, The Midwife; Bean Chaointe,The Keener; Bean Feasa,The Seer; Bean Leighis,The Medicine Woman
4. Sarah’s own first experiences as a midwife and how this story is told in memory of a pair of twins, one born alive and one stillborn
5. Our craving for a wise woman mentor, and the bean ghlúine is that being for Sarah
6. What it’s like to be comfortable in the shadows, the Cailleach, and Samhain and what it’s like to embrace the joy and light that come with Brigid
7. Ancestral stories and how they cause us to both fear and reclaim aspects of ourselves
8. Saint Brigid of the Flaming Harrow who helped her Mary when she was “churched” after the birth of Jesus (hear the story in S6 Ep42)

Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

WORK WITH MARISA

1. 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
2. Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups

Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.

Take Marisa's Brigid class at Celtic Junction!

Marisa will be teaching a three-session online class for Celtic Junction, starting January 28.

Register for Brigid & Expressions of the Irish Divine Feminine

Our Story

As the season of Imbolc draws closer, an episode from the KnotWork archives. Kate Chadbourne offers us two tales of Brigit, Ireland's patron goddess and saint. The first describes Brigit as the Blessed Virgin Mary's best friend and the first celebration of Saint Brigit's Day. The second is a story of resourcefulness and kindness: when Brigit saves a fox and outfoxes a king.

Our Guest

Kate Chadbourne is a singer, harper, and storyteller, an award-winning songwriter and poet, and a scholar of Irish language and folklore with a PhD from Harvard. She's a beloved performer at venues throughout New England and founder of The Bardic Academy, a school for writers, musicians, singers, and young scholars. Kate recently released her novel The Poet on the Train.

Learn more about Kate as a performer, teacher, editor, and guide at The Bardic Academy and her vibrant YouTube channel.

In This Episode:

1. Fite fuaite—an Irish phrase that speaks to the weaving together of ideas
2. The meanings of Brigit's names: "Flaming arrow" and "life force, vitality"
3. Prayer as co-conspiring with the universe: Brigit doesn't ask God to take care of everything, she asks for the eyes to see the solution and does her part
4. "Conspiring" means "to be inspirited together"
5. The power of the Celtic Wheel of the Year, which reminds us of our most treasured values and our connection to nature
6. Imbolc: the feast of Ewe Lactation—a great excuse to have the finest butter, cheese, and ice cream!

Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.

Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine. Words Are Magic

1. 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
2. Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
3. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com

Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.

Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

Take Marisa's Brigid class at Celtic Junction!

Marisa will be teaching a three-session online class for Celtic Junction, starting January 28.

Register for Brigid & Expressions of the Irish Divine Feminine

In this episode:

As part of our Myth Workers and Culture Makers series, we sit down with Natalie O'Shea, founder and Executive Director of Celtic Junction Arts Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. We explore the Brigid's Cross as a living symbol and community touchstone.

This Imbolc-season conversation weaves together the power of place, the preservation of language and tradition, and the resonance between Irish and indigenous wisdom on Dakota land.

Our Guest

In addition to being founder and Executive Director of the Celtic Junction Arts Center of Minnesota, Natalie is an officer of Ireland Network Minnesota, and a member of National Irish Cultural Centers of North America (NICCoNA), representing her region nationally and internationally. She is an actor, speaker, and writer/ director of three annual productions with an international resume of theater work. Natalie’s honors include being named an Advisory Editor for University of St. Thomas’s New Hibernia Review and one of the Irish Echo’s “Arts & Culture Heroes” in 2020, as a “Rebuilder of Irish America” in 2021 and 2022, and honored as an Ambassador of Irish Culture in 2025. She toured the world for three and a half years with Riverdance, The Show where she met her Dubliner husband Cormac Ó Sé before moving to Ireland and, eventually, back to Minnesota.

Find out more about what's happening at celticjunction.org and on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and LinkedIn

Our Conversation:

1. We recorded this session on January 7, the day Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. As a community organization, Celtic Junction is doing what they can to support the people of the Twin Cities in this difficult time.
2. The Brigid's Cross as living symbol offering us the four directions, a sense perpetual movement, and the ritual of annual renewal
3. Building Irish cultural community in Minnesota on Dakota land
4. Language, place, and the intersection of Irish and Indigenous wisdom
5. The divine feminine as goddess, saint, and living presence
6. Keeping tradition alive without holding it too tightly

The old hymn to Brigid quoted at the start of the episode:

Gabhaim molta Bhríde,

Ionmhain le hÉirinn;

Ionmhain le gach tir í,

Molaimis go léir í.

I proclaim the praises of Brigid;

she is dear to Ireland;

she is dear to every country;

let us all join in her praises.

Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.

Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine. Words Are Magic

1. 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
2. Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
3. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com

Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.

Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2026

Registration is open now for our intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, novelists. and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”

Learn more and apply to join the Authors’ Knot.

Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack

Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.

Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine. Words Are Magic

OUR STORY

Ciarán of Saighir was born jus as Christianity was emerging in Ireland. This is the story of a woman’s vision, a long pilgrimage, and what happens when you keep company with a boar, a wolf, a badger, and a fox in a very inhospitable forest.

The story was recorded during a Myth Workers’ Salon, a gathering of Myth Is Medicine newsletter subscribers. If you’d like to join the next gathering and hear the story before it’s on the podcast, sing up or upgrade your current subscription at: https://mythismedicine.substack.com/

IN THIS EPISODE

1. January 6 and all of its spiritual and traditional celebrations: Little Christmas, Epiphany , Nollaig Na mBan (“women’s Christmas” in the Irish)
2. The human habit of trying to tame the wild and the trouble with anthropocentrism
3. Connecting with the animal nature within and reconnecting to nature in a profound, elemental way
4. What it means to be a liminal creature, to hold space for both worlds, for multiple traditions, like paganism and Catholicism
5. Sources of this story: John Moriarty in Invoking Ireland, Martin Shaw in Jawbone, Ciaran Carson’s The Star Factory in which he quotes Patricia Lynch’s Knights of God

OUR STORY

Ciarán of Saighir was born jus as Christianity was emerging in Ireland. This is the story of a woman’s vision, a long pilgrimage, and what happens when you keep company with a boar, a wolf, a badger, and a fox in a very inhospitable forest.

The story was recorded during a Myth Workers’ Salon, a gathering of Myth Is Medicine newsletter subscribers. If you’d like to join the next gathering and hear the story before it’s on the podcast, sing up or upgrade your current subscription at: https://mythismedicine.substack.com/

IN THIS EPISODE

1. January 6 and all of its spiritual and traditional celebrations: Little Christmas, Epiphany , Nollaig Na mBan (“women’s Christmas” in the Irish)
2. What it means to tame the wild and the trouble with anthropocentrism
3. Connecting with the animal nature within and reconnecting to nature in a profound, elemental way
4. What it means to be a liminal creature, to hold space for both worlds, for multiple traditions, like paganism and Catholicism
5. Sources of this story: John Moriarty in Invoking Ireland, Martin Shaw in Jawbone, the original manuscript at celt.ucc.ie, Ciaran Carson’s The Star Factory in which he quotes Patricia Lynch’s Knights of God.

The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2026

Registration is open now for our intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, novelists. and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”

Learn more and apply to join the Authors’ Knot.

OUR STORY

It’s the winter solstice in the northern part of the globe. Christmas is just days away. This time of year is so steeped in story. Our culture is shaped by the nativity story in so many ways.

And yet, we’re shaped by the storyless mysteries too, like the 5000 year old passage tomb of Newgrange which was built to capture the rising sun on the Winter Solstice.

Sitting with these two late December phenomena, the story of Bethlehem and the alignment of Newgrange, I invite you to consider Omen Days and the 12 Rays of Solstice, two practices that can help you reflect and prepare for the new year.

IN THIS EPISODE

1. The Christmas story describing the birth of Christ endures because it’s the foundation of a faith, but also because it contains the elements of a good story
2. Calm Tóibín’s novella The Shortest Day, a fictional account of the modern discovery of the Newgrange solstice alignment by Professor Michael O’Kelly in 1967.
3. Caitlín Matthew’s description of the medieval Omen Days practice, from December 26 - January 6.
4. An alternative: start searching out twelve signs over twelve days starting on solstice, from December 21-January 1, as a way to gain insight into what each of the twelve months might offer.

JOIN US ON JANUARY 3

1. Join us for the January 3 Reflect & Envision Retreat!
2. It's open to all paid Myth Is Medicine subscribers. Subscribe or upgrade your subscription at https://mythismedicine.substack.com/
3. During this this three-hour event (held noon - 3 PM ET via Zoom) we'll have the time and space to reflect on the year that was, root into the moment that is, and imagine the year that will be.
4. We will weave the Omen Days practice into our time together.

Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

1. 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
2. Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
3. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com

Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.

The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2026

Registration is open now for our intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, novelists. and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”

Learn more and apply to join the Authors’ Knot.

Our Story

In this original tale by Erica O’Reilly, we meet An Chailleach, the ancient grandmother spirit of Irish folklore. Though the Cailleach is often associated with fierce energy, she is also the gentlest of goddesses. In this story, she comes to the aid of a little boy who needs her help navigating his first Christmas without his mother.

Our Guest

Erica O’Reilly is an Irish-Canadian storyteller, spiritual counsellor, and ordained minister whose work is rooted in the transformative power of story. Supported by the ancestral Irish traditions of the Mná Feasa (Wise Women), the Mná Ghlùline (Soul Midwives), the Mná Leigheas (Medicine Women), and the Áes Dána (People of the Arts), she believes deeply in facilitating experiences where souls feel seen, heard, and held. She lives on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation

As the Creative Visionary of Into the Circle Theatre, Erica weaves Irish culture, folklore, and mythology into contemporary storytelling that honours feminine wisdom and ancestral memory.

Stay in touch with Erica by subscribing to her gorgeous newsletter and podcast, Into the Circle with Erica O’Reilly on Substack.

IN THIS EPISODE

1. A conversation between two storytellers about heart, soul, and craft involved in the creative process
2. How stories arrive as medicine for the teller, especially when navigating grief and the complexities Christmas without a beloved parent
3. Erica's relationship with the Cailleach and how she offer "steady bones" through early grief—a grandmother spirit who offers both fierce presence and tender support
4. The art of staying in relationship with stories across seasons and trusting they remain "in the wings" waiting for their moment to be told again
5. How oral storytellers navigate multiple formats and platforms (live performance, Substack, podcast) to honor both the spirit of stories and the diverse ways listeners need to receive them
6. The practice of repetition and re-telling as a way to honor a story's living essence rather than treating it as one-time “content”

Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

1. 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
2. Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
3. Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com

Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.

The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2026

Registration is open now for our intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, novelists. and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”

Learn more and apply to join the Authors’ Knot.

Amanda Carmody shares three Christmas stories from her uncle, Irish philosopher John Moriarty. We follow a five year-old John to the barn on Christmas morning, meet a local Moyvane man who shows a sense of “alarming humanity” at Christmas mass, and walk with John and a five year-old Amanda to Granny’s house to light the Christmas candle in the window. 

OUR GUEST

Amanda Carmody joins us to speak about her uncle and dear friend, John Moriarty. She knows firsthand how John Moriarty’s work can be a shelter, a companion, and a deep reservoir of meaning through the dark night of the soul. 

Amanda spent meaningful time with John and later devoted many years to studying his wisdom teachings. Over the past six years, she has shared that work widely—through institutes, festivals, reading groups, workshops, blogs, and online classes. She has a background in visual display and design and is also an author and illustrator, an co-editor of John Moriarty: Grounded in Story.

She is the mother of three remarkable children: Damien, Sarah, and Anna. Being a mother and carer is Amanda’s first calling, and it is from this lived experience that she speaks.

Connect with Amanda and the vibrant John Moriarty Community on Facebook

• The first story of John as a five year old appears in his autobiography Nostos and serves as a foundational story that informs so many of his other teachings and stories
• The power and presence of the lapwings, a species of birds that was once ubiquitous around Ireland is now profoundly endangered
• Manchán Magan’s podcast series about John Moriarty, The Bog Shaman
• The influences of indigenous North American stories on John’s work, particularly after his time in Western Canada. Resonances between John’s work and that of Robin Wall Kimmerer and her ideas around naming and how names transform relationships
• John’s most important message: this spirit of ecumenicism. Written on his tombstone,  "Mitakuye Oyasin" (the Lakota phrase, “we are all related”): nothing and no one is excluded from the sacred, not the animals in the barn, not the darkness, not our crooked humanity.
• The nature of love, and how to love people beyond projections into loving people in their sacred otherness.

Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

• 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
• Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
• Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com

Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.

Write Your Book With Us In 2026

The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2026

Registration is open now for our intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, novelists. and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”

OUR STORY

King Bran discovers the mystical silver branch. He loses it the very next day and sets sail to the otherworld to recover it. As with any otherworldly journey, this is so much more than just a boat trip!

OUR GUEST

Jenny Finn has designed structures that foster vitality in people, communities, and organizations for nearly 30 years. Her research, mentoring, and teaching invites people to deepen the relationship they have with themselves in order to serve the world with greater clarity and compassion. Jenny's work has taken many forms including non-profit leadership, trauma and hospice care, chaplaincy, clinical private practice, community building through the expressive arts, community and cultural design, and transformative education. Jenny holds a Ph.D. in Sustainability Education and is the co-founder of Springhouse–an intergenerational vitality-centered learning community in Southwest Virginia.

Join the Springhouse Online community at https://community.springhouse.org/

Find Springhouse on Instagram @SpringhouseCommunity and on Facebook

IN THIS EPISODE

• The meaning of "waking up" and following a call–even when it leads to irreversible change
• The influence of John Moriarty and his concept of “Silver Branch Perception”
• Jenny’s stories of transformation, recovery, and the importance of community support
• The founding and mission of Springhouse as a place to nurture the source of life in everyone
• The challenge of living in a culture focused on achievement rather than human development
• Reflections on education, tradition, and creating spaces for true growth and renewal
• The ongoing journey of remembering, supporting each other, and carrying the "silver branch" through life
• A "wayzgoose" is an annual printer's entertainment or outing, originally held to celebrate the start of working by candlelight and mark the end of summer. 

Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

Work With Marisa

• 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
• Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
• Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com

Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.

Write Your Book With Us In 2026

The Authors’ Knot Program, February - November 2026

Registration is open now for our intimate 10-month online writing program for thought leaders, memoirists, novelists. and heart-led visionaries working on a book or another “big project.”

In this episode, we welcome back Elizabeth Cunningham, a beloved guest who joins us for the third time. Elizabeth shares the wild Elemental Grannies who appear in her latest novel Over the Edge of the World. 

OUR GUEST

Widely known for The Maeve Chronicles, Elizabeth Cunningham is the author of six other novels, four collections of poems, and a memoir. She lives in the Valley of the Mahicantuck on land that was home to the Esopus Tribe of the Lenape.

Elizabeth’s latest novel is Over the Edge of the World and her new poetry collection is called  Holding Our Brokenness. Find all of her books at https://elizabethcunninghamwrites.com/

IN THIS EPISODE

• Meet the Grannies–Sweep, Spark, Dirt, and Brine
•  The power of fairytales to help us grapple with the biggest issues of modern life, particularly issues of power and environmental destruction
• Archetypal old women characters that have appeared across Elizabeth’s work especially in The Wild Mother and The Maeve Chronicles
• Elizabeth’s process of naming and conceiving of her characters 
• A reading of “November Trees”  a poem from her new collection, Holding Our Brokenness

Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

Work With Marisa

• 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at writingcoachmarisa.com
• Learn about group writing opportunities: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups
• Find more of Marisa's writing and get a copy of her book, The Sovereignty Knot: www.marisagoudy.com

Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.

When Rima Bonario invited me to be part of her Sovereignty Rising Summit, I was honored. 

You’re invited to the Sovereignty Rising Summit, too! Join us Nov. 21-23. Register for this free online event now: https://www.thesevenqueendoms.net/sovereignty-rising-summit

Rima’s work has given me an opportunity to come back into renewed relationship with ideas that are always at the roots of everything I do at KnotWork.

OUR GUEST

Dr. Rima Bonario is an Author, Dream Weaver, and Soul-Coach with over 30 years of experience in spiritual and mystic exploration. She helps women reclaim their inner power, divine wisdom, and radiant presence through archetypal embodiment, ritual, and transformational programs.

As the author of The Seven Queendoms: A Soul-Map for Embodying Sacred Feminine Sovereignty, and the Founder of Bloom Temple Mystery School, Rima guides women into self-trust, soul-sourced prosperity, and embodied leadership. 

Holding a doctorate in Transformational Psychology, Rima blends trauma-informed practices, energy work, and the Temple Art of Anointing to offer profound spiritual transformation. 

Meet Rima, and more than three dozen other powerful advocates for the power of sovereignty at the Sovereignty Rising Summit: https://www.thesevenqueendoms.net/sovereignty-rising-summit

IN THIS EPISODE

• Marisa revisits the experience of writing and publishing The Sovereignty Knot, nearly six years later, including the shifts in our cultural interpretation of “sovereignty” due to the pandemic
• The Cailleach, a shapeshifting being older than the time and land itself, is likely the first of the Irish Sovereignty Goddesses
• The roots of Rima’s passion for sovereignty, including a childhood need to “up regulate” the adults in her life, which she sees a skill and an obligation of young women and the princess archetype
• Sovereignty counters both hyper-individualism and selfless service
• Reflections on sovereignty as individuals, and on the national level, particularly on colonized land in North America
• The concept of Rima’s seven sovereign queens, and their shadow aspects

Please Support Our Show: Join us on Substack

Love KnotWork Storytelling? Your financial contribution helps me pay the amazing team that puts this show together.

Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine. Words Are Magic

Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

WORK WITH MARISA

• 1:1 Writing Coaching: If you are working on a spiritual memoir or wellness professional or a creative entrepreneur who wants to use stories to build your business, book a free consultation with Marisa. Learn more at www.marisagoudy.com
• Learn about our global writing communities, the Authors’ Knot and the Writers’ Knot: www.marisagoudy.com/writing-groups

Follow the show on Substack, Instagram, and Facebook.