The ‘small print’ of working with powerful myths and archetypes - Caitlín Matthews

29 Oct

Episode 524, released 29th October 2025.

This week’s show is with Caitlín Matthews. Caitlín is an internationally renowned author, a teacher of shamanic training programme, a facilitator of Systemic Ritual® and the co-founder of the Foundation for Inspirational and Oracular Studies (FÍOS).

Listen or watch on:

Transcript is here: episode524transcript

Caitlín is the author of over 80 books, including Diary of a Soul Doctor, Singing the Soul Back Home, the Art of Celtic Seership, Celtic Devotional and The Celtic Book of the Dead. Her books have won a number of awards. She is known internationally for her work on the spiritual, mythic and ancestral traditions of Britain and Ireland. She teaches and works with communities and spiritual institutions worldwide from Iceland to Portugal and from USA to Australia.

Caitlín is a co-founder of the Foundation for Inspirational and Oracular Studies (FÍOS), which is dedicated to the sacred arts that shape the landscape of the soul, via vision, dream and memory. FÍOS hosts masterclasses with exemplars of living, oracular sacred traditions that are rarely recorded in writing or given an honourable place in modern society. Caitlín has had a shamanic healing practice in Oxford for the last 30 years, working in the community to deepen connections to the ancestral traditions which are our heritage.

In this conversation, Lian and Caitlín explore the very real but mostly forgotten ‘small print’ of working with myth and archetypes. They touch the older meaning of myth as something that never happened and is always happening, the danger of lifting archetypes out of their living stories, and the cost of hubris when we claim what is not ours. They look at what actually helps: context, reciprocity, and clear human boundaries.

They name moments that have taught them: Lian’s unexpected meeting with Athena on a sunlit hill above the sea, Caitlin’s doorstep story that fused life with the horse goddess, and the terrible Bali tale that shows why respect matters. Listen if you have ever felt the call of a god or goddess and wondered how to answer it whilst keeping both your wonder and your wits.

We’d love to know what YOU think about this week’s show. Let’s carry on the conversation… please leave a comment below.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

How sacred contracts, offerings, and manners keep archetypal work sane, grounded, and mutually respectful
Why context and lineage matter, and what goes wrong when archetypes are severed from their myths
What happens when identification replaces relationship, and the simple practices that restore right distance

Resources and stuff that we spoke about:

For Caitlín’s books & courses see: www.hallowquest.org.uk
For more of Caitlín’s writing on a range of topics, including a year-long course, Blessings of the Celtic Year, see her Hallowquest Sanctuary at https://substack.com/@caitlinmatthewstigerna
Join UNIO, the Community for Wild Sovereign Souls… Discover your kin & unite with your soul’s calling to truly live your myth.

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