KnotWork Myth & Storytelling
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...
The Cailleach Weaving Through Our Bones, Song & Conversation with Sionnáin | S7 Ep23
OUR STORY
In this episode from our archives, Irish songcarrier Sionnáin offers an ode to the Cailleach called “The Wise One” - a deep, powerful conversation about ancient tradition and living lore.
OUR GUEST
Sionnáin is a song carrier, ceremonialist and guide from the West of Ireland. She walks a path devoted to tending the threads of lineage, landscape and language. Through her living relationship with song, ceremony and kinship, she is remembering and returning to her native language.
For the last three years she has been deeply...
Why Is She Calling Us Now? Niamh, Oisín and the Irish Language in Liminal Times with Dian Killian | S7 Ep22
OUR STORY
The days of the great Fianna warriors have ended. Unexpectedly, Oisín is invited to live out his retirement in the Otherworld and become husband to Niamh on Tír na nÓg, the Land of Youth. How long is too long in paradise? Despite his love for his new wife and children, Oisín is destined to end his days at home in Ireland.
OUR GUEST
Dian Killian is the author of The Gaelic Effect, a popular publication on Substack, where she explores linguistic archaeology, human experience and pote...
The Hare, the Witch, and the Tower with Katy Swift | S7 Ep21
OUR STORY
Deep in the forest in the Scottish Borders, there’s a hidden cottage that’s home to a shapeshifting witch. In this ghost story, a handsome, duplicitous laird falls in love with the woman who can turn into a hare, and his entire world is turned upside down.
OUR GUEST
Katy Swift is a storyteller, maker, mother, and lifelong gatherer of the stories, skills, and ways of living that root us back into the more-than-human world. A Northumbrian lass with Highland and island heritage on her father’s side, she has made h...
The Buried Moon with Mitlé Southey | S7 Ep20
OUR STORY
We return to the archives for a story of the Fens of East Anglia, retold by Mitlé Southey.
The moon becomes trapped in a marsh pool. Without her light, the bogles and beasts of the darkness take over the Fens. Through a combination of community care and the wisdom of the old woman at the edge of the bog, the local people finally find and liberate the moon.
OUR GUEST
Mitlé is a Circle Holder walking the ancient path whilst contributing to a modern movement. The founder of Circle Sc...
Not End Times, But Mountain Time | S7 Ep19
OUR STORY
Mis staggers away from a gruesome battle on Kerry’s Dingle coast and finds a home in the mountains. Over 200 years, she becomes at one with the wild, covered in feathers and living completely apart from the human world. Eventually, the harper Dubh Ruis finds a gentle way to bring her home.
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 wi...
From the Archives: The Driftwood Man with Dee Mulrooney | S7 Ep18
OUR STORY
“Driftwood Man” is a timeless tale of longing and belonging, existential homesickness and ultimately coming home that’s at once deeply Irish and unmistakably global. This original story emerged as artist-performer-activist Dee Mulrooney emigrated from Dublin to Berlin and speaks of the longing for home, land, and belonging.
OUR GUEST
Based in Berlin, Dee Mulrooney weaves a rich tapestry of experiences, emotions, and insights into her creative practice. Rooted in the complexities of inhabiting a female body, her work emerges from the profound influences of her upbringing as a working-class Irish woman...
The Reddest Red & the Brightest Sun with Matthew Stillman | S7 Ep17
OUR STORY
Nobody 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 CONVERSATION
Matthew 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...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 r...
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...
From Anu to Saint Anne: Stories of Grandmother Wisdom with Perdita Finn | S7 Ep14
IN THIS EPISODE
Perdita 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 GUEST
Perdita Finn is the co-founder, with her husband Clark Strand, of the feral fellowship The Way of the Rose, which inspired their...
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
J...
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...
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 S...
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 o...
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 m...
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 an...
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 abou...
Island Consciousness | S7 Ep6
OUR STORY
The shoreline is a threshold. When we stand at the place where the ocean meets the land, we know we’re standing in between the worlds.
In this preview of S7 Ep6, Marisa tells the story of King Canute, the Anglo-Danish king whose famous confrontation with the tide has been misread for centuries. His real message–about faith and hubris and our relationship to the power of the elements–turns out to be more urgent now than it ever was.
But the Canute story is just the doorway. The full Turas episod...
Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll: Cú Chullain, the Outsider by Peter Wucherpfennig | S7 Ep5
OUR STORY
Cú Chullain is Ireland’s most renowned mythological hero, and his story comes what’s seen as the greatest of Irish epics, the Táin Bo Cualigne. And yet, we’ve never told his story on KnotWork.
Clearly we were waiting for the right storyteller. In this episode, Peter Wucherpfennig offers an outsider perspective on Cú Chullain’s early life told through a modern frame: a young Phil Lynnot, front man of the iconic 70s band Thin Lizzy conjures the elements of myth. You’ll also hear WB Yeats’s "An Irish Airman Foresees His De...
We Are the Grandchildren of the Selkies Who Stayed | S7 Ep4
OUR STORY
The selkie story is one of the most enduring tales in the Celtic imagination. A woman caught between two worlds, a stolen skin, and the impossible choice between the sea and the shore.
But what if the story doesn't end when she slips beneath the waves? What if it lives on in her descendants, in us?
Hear the myth on KnotWork Myth & Storytelling: KnotWorkStorytelling.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. The full Turas episode is available exclusively to paid subscribers of Myth Workers’ Hearth on Substack.
When you're re...
The Silver Wheel with Jen Murphy | S7 Ep3
OUR STORY
Jen Murphy tells us the core tales Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, the great epic of Welsh mythology, beginning with King Math and his Goewin, his “virgin footholder” and concluding with the story of Arianrhod.
Jen concludes her telling with Blodeuwedd, who you met in S7 Ep 1.
OUR GUEST
Jen Murphy is an Irish mythologist, anthropologist and founder of The Celtic Creatives. A Dubliner born and bred, from the time she could talk, Jen's grandmother Frances O'Sullivan filled her ears with tales from Irish myth and folklore, fuelling a now...
The Invitation to Tir na mBan, the Land of Women | S7 Ep2
OUR STORY
We’ve told the story of King Bran and the silver branch several times on KnotWork. This time, we the woman’s story, the story of the Bean Sídhe who speaks her fifty quatrains of poetry and invites us all across the sea to Tír na mBan, the Island of Women.
ABOUT THE NEW SERIES: TURAS
Turas, the Irish word for journey, is a paid subscriber series within KnotWork Myth & Storytelling. Each episode takes us deeper into the imaginal landscape of Tír na mBan, the Island of Women from Ir...
The Fires of Bealtaine and Eros with Robert Mulhall | S7 Ep1
OUR STORY
Just in time for Bealtaine, the Irish festival of fertility and new life, we explore the erotic energy at the heart of all creation, specifically in the context of Celtic mythology.
We open with a brief retelling of the story of the woman made of flowers Blodeuwedd, which appears in the fourth branch of the Welsh mythological epic, the Mabinogi. You’ll hear an excerpt of Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill’s Irish language poem, “Blodeuwedd,” and the translation by John Montague.
OUR GUEST
Robert brings two decades of experience in diverse i...
Bean Ghlúine of the Burren, The Midwife of County Clare with Sarah Richardson
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Subscribe to our newsletter Myth Is Medicine. Words Are Magic
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 mi...
Conspiring With Brigit with Kate Chadbourne | S6 Ep42
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...
The Spin of the Brigid's Cross with Natalie O'Shea | S6 Ep41
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...
Ciarán and His Wild, Holy Kin | S6 Ep40
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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.”
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OUR STORY
Omen Days & Solstice Rays | S6 Ep39
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.”
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 y...
A Winter’s Gift with Erica O’Reilly | S6 Ep38
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.”
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...
The Christmas Visions of John Moriarty with Amanda Carmody | S6 Ep37
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.”
Learn more and apply to join the Authors’ Knot.
OUR STORY
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 ma...
Keeping Hold of the Sacred Branch | S6 Ep36
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 f...
Meet The Elemental Grannies with Elizabeth Cunningham | S6 Ep35
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
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 Cunning...
Sovereignty Rising with Rima Bonario | S6 Ep34
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 h...
Gather Round the Fire with the Women and the Rabble | S6 Ep 33
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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 d...
Through the Samhain Portal with Robert Mulhall | S6 Ep 32
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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...
Digging Deeper Than Mythology Can Take Us | S6 Ep31
Last Call! Write with Us this September
The Writers’ Knot is welcoming new members! This is the global creative community where where the mythic imagination meets creative expression.
Registration is now open and due to the intimate nature of this community, space is extremely limited: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
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IN THIS EPISODE
<...Silver Branch Perception: The Voyage of Bran | S6 Ep30
Write with Us this September
The Writers’ Knot is welcoming new members! This is the global creative community where where the mythic imagination meets creative expression.
Registration is now open and due to the intimate nature of this community, space is extremely limited: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
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.
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OUR STORY
King Bran leaves the fea...
Achtan: A Brave Mother’s Tale, featuring Karina Tynan | S6 Ep29
Write with Us this September
The Writers’ Knot is welcoming new members! This is the global creative community where where the mythic imagination meets creative expression.
Registration is now open and due to the intimate nature of this community, space is extremely limited: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
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
This week, a ‘best of the podcast episode’: Achtan...
Torn Between Two Worlds with Erica O'Reilly | S6 Ep28
Write with Us this September
The Writers’ Knot is welcoming new members! This is the global creative community where where the mythic imagination meets creative expression.
Registration is now open and due to the intimate nature of this community, space is extremely limited: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
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.
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Our Story
The sea has its own...
The Art of Arrival: A Modern Irish Immram | S6 Ep 27
Write with Us this September
The Writers’ Knot is welcoming new members! This is the global creative community where where the mythic imagination meets creative expression.
Registration is now open and due to the intimate nature of this community, space is extremely limited: www.marisagoudy.com/writers-knot-community
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
You can also dive deeper into the stories beh...
