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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...

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:

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.

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