The Vital Goddess

Dianne Shepherd
  • 4.9 (15)
  • Sexuality
  • Updated Weekly

The Vital Goddess Podcast is a sensual, soulful space for midlife women who feel the call to come home to their bodies. Through embodiment practices, sacred feminine wisdom, Taoist and Tantric teachings, and intimate reflections, each episode invites you out of the thinking mind and into the living intelligence of your body.  This is a place to soften, remember your pleasure, reclaim your power, and explore what it truly means to live from embodied love, radiance, and desire—on your own terms.

  1. Sep 25

    Reclaiming Aphrodite at Midlife—Venus Favors the Bold

    What if midlife isn’t the fading of our Venusian nature—but an initiation into its deepest, truest and freest expression? In this solo episode, Dianne explores Reclaiming Aphrodite at Midlife, inspired by the current astrology: the Venusian threshold of the Libra Equinox, a bold and fiery Aries Full Moon, Neptune’s invitation into surrender and embodied Love, and Venus moving through the passionate depths of Scorpio and beginning her longer dance with Pluto. There is a lot moving. Love is in the air. Passion is in the air. Alchemy is in the air. Transformation is in the air. And perhaps you’re feeling it too. That sense that an old way of being no longer quite fits. That something you once tolerated has become harder to tolerate. That desires once relegated to the back burner are suddenly asking for your attention. That your body is speaking a truth your mind hasn’t quite figured out yet. Perhaps this is part of the invitation to reclaim Aphrodite. Because reclaiming Aphrodite is about so much more than reclaiming our sexuality. It is about reclaiming our capacity for alchemy—our capacity to meet life sensually, relationally and creatively, to allow our encounters with life to transform us and, through us, transform our world. In this episode, Dianne introduces the Venusian Current—a state of flow and embodied Love that becomes available to us through our sensuality. Pleasure is the portal. Sensuality is how we enter. We don’t have to manufacture it. We become available to it. We learn to notice the beauty already here, receive the pleasure of the present moment, listen when desire whispers, and allow pleasure to move through us without needing to make it productive. And perhaps that is one of the boldest invitations of midlife: To choose to embody Love. Dianne closes the episode with a deliciously simple Venusian pleasure ritual to help you experience this current for yourself. In this episode: Reclaiming Aphrodite as a powerful midlife initiationWhy “Venus favors the bold”—and what boldness can look like at this stage of lifeThe Libra Equinox and Aries Full Moon as a backdrop for transformationVenus in Scorpio, Pluto and the mysteries of Eros and emotional alchemyMoving beyond cultural stories about sensuality, sexuality and agingAphrodite as Goddess of alchemy, creativity and transformationEntering the Venusian Current through sensualityWhy pleasure asks us to check in rather than check outBecoming more skillful at receiving and holding pleasureA simple ritual for cultivating embodied Love in everyday lifeGo Deeper If this episode is stirring something in you, this is the work we explore inside Dianne’s Venusian Mystery School, Vital Goddess Mastery. The waitlist is now open for the Spring 2027 semester, beginning in January. When you join the waitlist, you’ll receive early access to our Solstice Celebration with 30% savings on tuition—and you’ll also have the opportunity to book a complimentary private call with Dianne. It’s a space to explore what’s stirring for you, how this work might support you, and even create a simple custom ritual to nourish you in this season of your life. Join the Vital Goddess Mastery waitlist here. Pleasure is the portal. Sensuality is how we enter. Love is the state we embody. 🌹

  2. Sep 18

    The House of Becoming — Beauty, Home & the Sacred with Paula Agudelo

    What if your home wasn't simply the place where you lived… but a living reflection of who you are—and who you are becoming? In this beautiful conversation, I’m joined by sacred interior designer, spiritual business mentor, and self-described “house therapist” Paula Agudelo for an exploration of the soul of our spaces—and the profound ways our homes can support our healing, pleasure, creativity and becoming. After years working in luxury interiors, Paula found herself sitting in her car crying after installing a home that included a $47,000 rug. Everything was beautiful. And yet something essential was missing. The soul. That realization—and her own initiations through birth, motherhood, divorce and grief—eventually transformed the way Paula understood her work. Today, she helps women create homes not around trends or who they’ve been, but around who they are becoming. Together, we explore beauty as medicine and ritual, the nervous system’s relationship with our surroundings, the intimacy of the bedroom, and why our homes can become powerful allies during the thresholds of midlife. We talk about Paula’s extraordinary home birth and how beauty helped her body soften and open; the simple rituals that sustained her and her daughters through a difficult season after divorce; and why our beds may be some of the most sacred—and overlooked—altars in our homes. A Gift from Paula 🌹 Paula’s poem This Bed? beautifully captures one of the threads woven through our conversation—the bed as altar, portal, talisman and sacred space. Read + download This Bed?  here. We also explore downsizing as initiation: the grief and liberation of releasing objects, identities and earlier versions of ourselves so there is space for something new. And Paula takes us into the fascinating world of women and their sacred spaces—from Elizabeth Taylor’s symbolic bathtub to the places women have used to dream, create, heal and remember who they are. Because perhaps creating a beautiful home isn't really about decorating at all. Perhaps it's about asking: How do I want to feel here? What am I ready to leave behind? What gets to come with me? And… How am I bringing my love and devotion into my home? This conversation is such a beautiful invitation to look around the rooms you inhabit and begin seeing them differently—not simply as spaces to manage or perfect, but as places that can hold you, nourish you, mirror your truth and make room for the woman you are becoming. In this episode, we explore: Why Paula walked away from conventional luxury interior design to bring the sacred back into the homeThe “medicine of beauty” and how our surroundings influence the way we feelCreating spaces around experience and intention rather than trendsPaula’s beautiful home-birth story and the role environment played in helping her soften and openBeauty as ritual during grief, transition and challenging seasonsWhy your bed may be one of the most intimate altars in your homeDownsizing as a midlife initiation—and releasing what no longer belongs in your next chapterMaking physical space for new possibilities, desires and dreamsThe sacred spaces of iconic women and what they can teach us about identity and becomingPaula’s forthcoming poetry collection, House of BecomingSimple ways to bring more love, devotion and beauty into the spaces you already inhabitYou don’t necessarily need a new home—or even anything new—to begin. Sometimes it starts with fresh flowers. A beautiful mug. Soft lighting. Sheets you love. A room that allows your shoulders to drop. Small, everyday acts of beauty and devotion that quietly say: This moment matters. I matter. And the woman I am becoming deserves space. Dive deeper with Paula: Visit Paula's site Explore Paula's membership on sacred design Follow Paula on Instagram Join Paula's Sacred Interiors Facebook group

  3. Sep 11

    The Lost Art of Self-Devotion — Pleasure, Nourishment & the Initiation of Midlife with Jenny Glick

    What if caring for yourself wasn’t another thing to accomplish…but an act of devotion? This week on the Vital Goddess Podcast, I’m joined by the magnificent Jenny Glick for a rich and delicious conversation about pleasure, nourishment, marriage, midlife—and the lost art of becoming deeply devoted to ourselves. Jenny has spent more than 25 years guiding women and couples toward richer, more resonant relationships and lives, drawing from her background in couples counseling, sex therapy, family systems, somatic healing, trauma therapies, and decades of spiritual and personal practice. And ohhh…the places we go. We explore the subtle ways so many women have been conditioned into urgency, performance, holding, and striving—and how underneath so much of that may be a longing to finally feel safe. Jenny offers a beautiful reframe: rather than making ourselves another project to fix or regulate, what if we became interested in nourishing ourselves? What if we learned to receive? What if our calendars became altars to what we are truly devoted to? We talk about pleasure as a natural blooming of safety, the initiation of menopause and midlife, becoming the authority of our own bodies, honoring each woman’s unique “tone of truth,” and allowing our relationships themselves to become places of maturation and awakening. Jenny also shares intimately from her own midlife passage and how it invited her to slow down, listen differently, and reorganize her life around what truly matters. This conversation is an invitation to soften the clench. To come back into the body. To become deeply nourished. And perhaps to discover that self-devotion isn’t something we have to add to our lives. It’s a way of meeting the life we already have. In this conversation, we explore: 🌹 Safety, receptivity, and our capacity for pleasure 🌹 Moving from performance and urgency into nourishment 🌹 Why self-devotion feels different from self-care 🌹 Jenny’s beautiful practice of orienting to the “back body” 🌹 Seeing your calendar as an altar 🌹 Midlife and menopause as an initiatory passage 🌹 Reclaiming authority and honoring your own “tone of truth” 🌹 Why there can be many right ways for women to navigate their bodies and lives 🌹 Marriage as an initiation rather than another project to fix 🌹 How turning our gaze toward ourselves can transform our relationships Jenny also shares about her program Your Marriage Is Your Ashram and her forthcoming book, Marriage as Mystery School. And Jenny has a beautiful gift for the Vital Goddess community. 🌹 She’s offering 50% off Your Marriage Is Your Ashram, her self-study course for women who want to explore their marriage as a pathway of self-discovery, maturation, and deeper relationship with themselves. You can explore the course here: https://jennyglick.com/ymiya Simply use the code VITAL50 at checkout to receive 50% off. This one is rich, loves. Pour yourself something delicious, settle into your back body, and join us. 🌹 Dive deeper with Jenny: Visit Jenny's site Follow Jenny on Instagram Follow Jenny on YouTube Find Jenny on Substack

  4. Aug 21

    Pearl Wisdom & Devotional Bliss Under the Pisces Eclipse

    There is a powerful Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Pisces inviting us to release the mind from having to know the way—and surrender into a deeper kind of intelligence. Bliss intelligence. With the Sun, Mercury and South Node gathered in Virgo and Uranus in Gemini creating an electric tension around this eclipse, we’re being invited to loosen our grip on overthinking, overanalyzing and the compulsion to figure ourselves out. Our minds are brilliant. But perhaps the mind was never meant to lead us into mystery. In this episode, I explore a different invitation inspired by Joseph Campbell’s famous words, “Follow your bliss”. What if we don’t need to follow our bliss? What if we can simply be in our bliss? Rather than turning bliss into another quest, we can become sensitive to the subtle current of pleasure, aliveness, radiance and love that is already moving through the body. Because bliss isn’t something we need to chase. Bliss is a pathway into Love. And this brings us to one of my favorite feminine symbols and practices: Pearl Wisdom. The pearl offers such a beautiful metaphor for women in Second Spring.  A pearl forms layer by layer—and those layers don't obscure her radiance. The layers create her luster. What if aging isn't the gradual loss of our radiance, but the deepening of our luster? We aren't here to recover the glow of the woman we were at 25. Hell no. 😉 We're discovering the luminosity of the woman we've become through all of our living, loving, losing, creating, grieving, desiring and becoming. In this episode, we explore: the deeper invitation of the Pisces Full Moon Lunar Eclipsereleasing the mind from having to know the waybliss as a spiritual practice and pathway into LovePearl Wisdom and the power of embodied pleasurewhy the layers of our lives can deepen rather than diminish our lusterSecond Spring as an invitation into a new kind of radiancedescending into the body rather than searching for the sacred somewhere outside ourselvesreconnecting with the subtle intelligence, luminosity and pleasure already within us 🌹 Pearl Wisdom Ritual I created a fresh Pearl Wisdom Meditation to accompany this episode—a simple sensual ritual to help you breathe into your inner pearl, reconnect with your innate luminosity and experience devotional bliss as a pathway into Love. Download your Pearl Wisdom Ritual here. 🌹 Enter the Temple If this exploration speaks to something deep within you and you'd love to experience more sensual ritual, embodiment and sacred feminine practice, I would love to welcome you into the Vital Goddess Mastery Temple. Our Fall semester begins next week. Learn more about Vital Goddess Mastery here With love, Dianne 🌹

  5. Aug 14

    Romancing the Sacred Masculine—The Cosmic Love Affair Within

    Have you ever wondered if you're too much in your masculine? Maybe you’ve tried to soften more, receive more, slow down more… or somehow find that elusive “perfect balance” between your feminine and masculine energies. But what if balance was never the goal? What if these energies were meant to be in relationship? In this episode of The Vital Goddess Podcast, we explore the feminine and masculine through the ancient imagery of Yin and Yang—not as two opposing forces divided neatly down the middle, but as a dynamic, living dance. A partnership. An inner alchemy. Maybe even… a cosmic love affair. 😉 Because for many modern women, our inner Mars has become incredibly strong—and thank the Goddess for him. He’s helped us build careers, raise families, become strong and independent, accomplish extraordinary things, create safety and get shit done. The problem isn't that our masculine is too strong. Perhaps he's simply lost contact with Venus. And when we're disconnected from what we love, desire, value, enjoy and want to devote our precious life force to, that tremendous masculine capacity doesn't stop working. It simply starts taking its orders from somewhere else. When Venus doesn't give Mars his sacred assignment, the world will happily give him one. And the world's assignments are endless. In this episode, we explore: Why masculine/feminine “balance” may be less useful than cultivating a living relationship between themYin and Yang as a cosmic dance rather than a 50/50 balancing actHieros Gamos and the archetype of the Sacred Marriage withinWhy our powerful inner Mars isn't the problem—and why we might want to romance him insteadHow disconnection from Venus can leave us exhausted, resentful and numbThe shift from discipline to devotionWhy Venus asks not only “What needs to be done?” but “What is worth doing?”Desire + devotion as a potent form of inner alchemyA different way of understanding feminine magnetismRomantic love as a frequency our bodies can remember and cultivateHow inner nourishment changes the way we enter the banquet of relationshipThis isn't about making the masculine wrong or becoming “more feminine.” It's about bringing these powerful forces back into relationship. Venus reveals what we love. Mars helps us protect it, give it form and devote our life force to it. And together they can create something neither could create alone. Partnership. Inner alchemy. The cosmic love affair within.  Ready to go deeper? 🌹 If this exploration of Venus, the Sacred Masculine, and the cosmic love affair within is calling you deeper, this is exactly the kind of work we explore inside Vital Goddess Mastery. The VGM is my sacred feminine mystery school for midlife women ready to reclaim the sacredness of the body, the power of pleasure, and a more intimate relationship with their own sensual wisdom. Inside the Temple, we don't just talk about these ideas—we bring them into the body through sensual practice, breathwork, ritual, and embodied exploration. And yes… there’s an entire salon devoted to Romancing the Sacred Masculine. 🌹 If you’re feeling the pull, I’d love to welcome you inside. Learn more about Vital Goddess Mastery here

  6. Aug 7

    The Body Temple...Pleasure, Breath & a Venusian Way of Manifestation

    The world has taught us to treat the body as a project to perfect, a problem to solve, or a tool for getting what we want. But what if the body is something far more sacred? In this episode of the Vital Goddess Podcast, we're exploring a Venusian way of remembering the body as temple, the breath as the sacred bridge between mind and heart, and pleasure as our natural expression when resistance begins to soften. Inspired by the Lion's Gate Portal and the Leo New Moon Solar Eclipse, Dianne shares a fresh perspective on manifestation—not as striving to become someone else, but as releasing what obscures the radiance already within us. Inside this episode you'll discover: 🌹 Why the body is not a strategy for manifestation—but the sanctuary through which life expresses itself. 🌹 A new way of understanding pleasure as nourishment rather than indulgence. 🌹 How breath opens the doorway from analytical thinking into embodied knowing. 🌹 The shadow gifts of Leo and the stories that often keep women from shining. 🌹 How sacred scent and essential oils can deepen your embodiment practice. As a companion to this episode, you'll also receive a Vital Goddess Breathwork Journey: A Practice of Sacred Sensuality, Radiance & Devotional Bliss—a guided experience designed to help you soften, receive, and reconnect with the wisdom of your body. Whether you're listening during the Lion's Gate Portal, the Leo New Moon, or months from now, this practice is an invitation to return again and again to the temple within that has always been waiting for you. Your Resources 🌹 FREE Guided Practice Vital Goddess Breathwork Journey A Practice of Sacred Sensuality, Radiance & Devotional Bliss Download your complimentary guided breath journey here. 🌹 Companion Guide The Anointed Heart A simple Venusian ritual for working with sacred scent and essential oils in your breathwork practice. Download your PDF here. 🌹 Join the Temple If this episode awakened something within you and you're longing for ongoing guidance, community, and weekly embodied practice, I'd love to welcome you into Vital Goddess Mastery, my online Venusian Mystery School for women. Learn more and join us here.

  7. Jul 31

    The Wisdom of Sacred Pilgrimage: Coming Home to Yourself

    A conversation with Katie Duggan Some places don't simply ask us to visit... They ask us to remember. In this beautiful conversation, Katie Duggan and I explore the magic of sacred pilgrimage, the mystery of Avalon, and why stepping into a sacred landscape has the power to awaken something ancient within us. Together we explore why pilgrimage is so much more than travel. It is an inner journey. A remembering. A return. Whether Avalon has been whispering your name for years—or you've never heard of it before—I hope this conversation reminds you that the deepest pilgrimage always begins within. In this episode we explore... 🌹 Why Avalon feels unlike anywhere else in the world 🌹 The difference between self-improvement and sacred remembering 🌹 How sacred landscapes awaken forgotten parts of ourselves 🌹 Why slowness is an essential spiritual practice 🌹 The healing power of feminine community and sisterhood 🌹 Following the quiet embodied pull before your mind understands why 🌹 Bringing the spirit of pilgrimage into everyday life A few moments you'll want to savor... "The ceremony starts after the ceremony." "Nobody goes to Avalon and comes back the same." "Your pilgrimage starts the moment you say yes." A Venusian Reflection: Where in your life do you feel an invitation... ...one that doesn't necessarily make logical sense... ...but continues to whisper anyway? Rather than asking, "Does this make sense?" Perhaps ask, "What can I play with here? Can I give this some space and just get curious?  Sometimes the journey begins long before we ever pack a suitcase. Connect with Katie: ✨ Katie’s Website: https://www.katieduggan.com/  ✨ Learn more about her Avalon Pilgrimages: https://www.katieduggan.com/eventbrite-event/divine-feminine-avalon-pilgrimage/  ✨ Follow Katie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wellness.with.katie.d/ ✨ Follow Katie on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0iL48UkqX9t73LLGny_Ekg If this conversation nourished you... I'd love to invite you to subscribe to the podcast and share this episode with a sister who may be longing for a deeper connection to herself. And if you're feeling called to explore these themes more deeply, I'd love to welcome you into the Vital Goddess Mastery Temple, where each week we gather to slow down, breathe, move, and remember the sacred wisdom of the feminine body. Learn more here.

  8. Jul 24

    Rewilding the Root: Reclaiming Our Wild Innocence Under the Aquarius Full Moon

    What if your wild innocence never left you? Perhaps she's simply become obscured by the fog. Inspired by the Aquarius Full Moon, this episode is a gentle invitation to rewild the root, dissolve the fog of shame, and remember the exquisite aliveness that has always belonged to you. Through breath, warmth, rhythm, and movement, we explore a different path to liberation. Not through force. Not through fixing. But by creating the conditions where life remembers how to move through us again. Together we explore a radically different vision of liberation. Not through force. Not through fixing. But through warmth. Through rhythm. Through breath. Through the body. Because wildness doesn’t always roar. Sometimes it arrives as a slow tide. In this episode we explore… 🌹 Why Aquarius is the great liberator and what this Full Moon is revealing 🌹 Pluto as radical aliveness rather than destruction 🌹 Shame as a fog that obscures our natural radiance 🌹 Why the opposite of shame may not be confidence—but aliveness 🌹 The forgotten wisdom of the sacrum and tail 🌹 Why warmth, breath, and gentle movement help life begin flowing again 🌹 A new way of understanding rewilding through the feminine body Your Venusian Practice Rewilding the Root A Venusian Practice for Reclaiming Your Wild Innocence This gentle 15-minute guided practice invites warmth, circulation, and movement back into the pelvis, sacrum, and tail. Rather than trying to fix the body, we create the conditions where she can dissolve the fog of shame and remember her innate wildness. Download the guided practice here. If this episode felt like coming home… Perhaps your body is longing for a place where this way of being is nurtured and cultivated.  Vital Goddess Mastery is a Venusian Mystery School for women who are ready to remember the sacred intelligence of the body through beauty, breath, pleasure, movement, and sisterhood. Not another course to complete. A living sanctuary. A Venusian atmosphere. A place where women remember together that the body isn’t something to fix… She’s someone to love. Learn more and join us here.

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4.9
out of 5
15 Ratings

About

The Vital Goddess Podcast is a sensual, soulful space for midlife women who feel the call to come home to their bodies. Through embodiment practices, sacred feminine wisdom, Taoist and Tantric teachings, and intimate reflections, each episode invites you out of the thinking mind and into the living intelligence of your body.  This is a place to soften, remember your pleasure, reclaim your power, and explore what it truly means to live from embodied love, radiance, and desire—on your own terms.

Information

  • Creator
    Dianne Shepherd
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    261
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Vital Goddess
  • Show Website
    The Vital Goddess

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