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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.

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

S6 Ep 33

We continue to celebrate Samhain season on the podcast with a story of an Irish goddess and queen who was eventually known as a banshee and a witch. 

Though we tend to celebrate the festival on the same day as Halloween, October 31, the ancestors would have celebrated this final harvest on the day that falls between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice. In 2025, that’s November 7.

In a year full of No Kings protests and with the election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City mayor, it’s the perfect time to embrace the women and the rabble who operate outside the halls of established power.

“Then, on the eve of Samhain precisely, Mongfind dies. So this is The Death of Mongfind the Banshee. Hence Samhain is called by the rabble, “Mongfind's Feast,”  for she was a witch and had magical power while she was in flesh; wherefore women and the rabble make petitions to her on Samhain.” From "The Death of Crimthan Etc." in the Silva Gadelica, a collection of medieval Irish tales, translated by Standish O’Grady, 1892. 

Mongfind, a sovereignty goddess and high queen of Tara, inspired Marisa to start KnotWork Storytelling, and her stories  appeared in several past episodes:

• Ireland’s Forgotten Goddess-Queen-Witch (S4 Ep7)
• The Last Sovereignty Goddess (S4 Ep 8)
• Niall of the Nine Hostages, A Story by Mari Kennedy (S3 Ep14)

This story is really an invitation to imagine and do your own myth working. Who were “the women and the rabble” who would have remembered Mongfind after her death? Where would they have gathered? Who would have led the ceremony? What would their petitions have been?

Share your myth work reflections in the comments section of the latest post at Myth Is Medicine.

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.

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

Samhain: the Celtic festival when the veil between the worlds is thin.

It's the last harvest of the old year, the start of the new, and a time of turning inward both to reckon with the shadow and to engage in deep, restorative rest.

We're marking the start of Samhain season with a conversation with Robert Mulhall as part of our Myth Workers and Culture Makers series.

May this episode offer you an invitation to have your own conversation with the Otherworld and engage with mythology, the land, and the power of ritual and ceremony.

OUR GUEST

Robert Mulhall has spent the last two decades in such diverse industries as public health, leadership development, education, finance, organizational consulting, and executive coaching. He is now the CEO of Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in the Berkshires. 

Originally from County Wicklow, Robert holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce, accounting, and business management from the University College of Dublin. He is a certified public accountant in Ireland, and certified in mediation, executive coaching, the Enneagram, Reiki, and Celtic Irish Shamanism. 

 IN THIS EPISODE:

• Living mythology in modern times through relationship with the land and daily spiritual practice
• The power of uncertainty and mystery in Irish spiritual traditions
• The importance of humility in walking with spirit and indigenous wisdom
• Finding wholeness through reconnecting with ancestral roots and practices
• Navigating cultural identity and spiritual authenticity with an awareness of colonization and what it has stolen from both indigenous and white-identifying peoples
• The symbol and power of the triple spiral, the triskele
• “Don’t rush your winter.” How can you allow your own wintering, quietude, and need for rest and renewal - even if that instinct doesn’t match the current weather or your long to do list.

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.