Romancing the Threshold

Vanessa Couto
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Exploring the in‑between: where imagination, romance, and the soul’s journey meet. vanessacouto.substack.com

Episodes

  1. JAN 26

    Weaving the WYRD While Empires White-Knuckle Death

    While systems grip their dying world, we're midwifing what's being born through every story we love. In this solo episode, I weave together childhood under dictatorship, the ancient myth of Proteus, and how we're already part of the WYRD network—everyone who's ever let a story rearrange their molecules. From my inner Jason Bourne fantasies to recognizing romance novels as medicine, I explore how tending story-doorways isn't escape but how we stay ungovernable. Because while empires try to board up every portal, we're already walking between worlds. Vanessa Couto is an astrologer, mythic guide, and storyteller exploring thresholds where the personal meets the collective. Host of the Romancing the Threshold podcast and creator of the For Your Pleasure book club. Find me at vanessacouto.com Get full access to Vanessa Couto at vanessacouto.substack.com/subscribe

    34 min

  2. JAN 14

    Having your VISA Declined at the Threshold

    In this intimate conversation, Vanessa sits with her friend Jessiemarie to explore an unexpected threshold space: the adult retail shop. Drawing from her experience helping customers navigate their most vulnerable desires, Jessiemarie reveals how these deliberately unsexy, fluorescent-lit spaces become impromptu confessionals where strangers voice what they've never admitted—even to themselves. Together, they unpack the universal pattern of arriving at any threshold convinced we're broken and seeking quick fixes, whether that's a magic toy to "fix" our bodies or any external solution to internal disconnection. The conversation deepens into how asking better questions IS the foreplay for transformation, why bodies are meant to change (and changing doesn't mean malfunctioning), and how the most profound threshold guides often wear name tags instead of robes. Through stories of brief encounters that crack people open, they explore why we clutch our credit cards at crossings that only accept vulnerability as currency, and how real transformation requires not purchasing our way through but romancing the questions we're afraid to ask. This episode speaks to anyone who's ever tried to buy their way past becoming who they're meant to be. Get full access to Vanessa Couto at vanessacouto.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 39m
  3. Breaking the Spell of Separation: A Celtic Shaman's Guide to Romancing Uncertainty

    JAN 7

    Breaking the Spell of Separation: A Celtic Shaman's Guide to Romancing Uncertainty

    Celtic shaman and author Jane Burns illuminates how threshold spaces—those uncomfortable in-between times we rush through—are actually portals of creative power where the ancient Celts knew magic lived. In this rich conversation, Jane reveals the reciprocal nature of spiritual relationships: ancestors and helping spirits seek partnership, not worship, and both worlds have genuine stakes in our collective evolution. Moving beyond "cosmic shopping mall" spirituality, she shares time-honored Celtic practices for courting rather than conquering uncertainty. Essential listening for anyone ready to discover why the Otherworld might need us back, and how transformation is always a collaborative dance between worlds, never a solo battle. Get full access to Vanessa Couto at vanessacouto.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 44m
  4. The Bestiary of Unearthing

    12/21/2025

    The Bestiary of Unearthing

    A solo episode closing out a transformative year. After cataloging 50 monsters across 125 romance novels, seven creatures emerged as threshold guides through grief and reclamation. These aren't just steamy reads but medicine for anyone exhausted from being the emotional regulator, the perpetually useful one. At its heart: the Beauty and the Beast truth that we need witnessing without performance—monsters who see us whole without needing our usefulness as currency. An invitation to recognize the guides waiting in your own threshold seasons. Get full access to Vanessa Couto at vanessacouto.substack.com/subscribe

    31 min
  5. What Story Are You Telling at the Threshold?

    12/03/2025

    What Story Are You Telling at the Threshold?

    Rune reader and elder Ingrid Kincaid explores how every threshold demands sacrifice and why the stories we tell about change shape our experience of it. We discuss the gift of the liminal space, why resistance to change closes our curiosity, and why we need elders to step forward (not aside) to translate ancient wisdom for modern crossings. For anyone wanting to meet life's transitions as sacred exchanges rather than obstacles to overcome. Get full access to Vanessa Couto at vanessacouto.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 33m
  6. When the Avalanche Reveals the Valley

    11/06/2025

    When the Avalanche Reveals the Valley

    When an avalanche buries your world, what gets revealed? Author Ella Larson joins me to explore how her Hidden Folk series teaches us to meet catastrophic change with curiosity rather than with the tension of 'white knuckling it.' We discuss why love is a choice that transforms us from separate entities into something larger, how "in-between" spaces are fertile ground for becoming, and why being truly seen is both the price and gift of belonging. Drawing from her own threshold crossing to Norway and the hidden valleys of her fiction, this conversation illuminates how approaching our avalanche moments with the curiosity of lovers rather than the grip of fear changes everything. Get full access to Vanessa Couto at vanessacouto.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 3m
  7. Walking to the Edge of Desire: My Husband Reads Romance

    10/23/2025

    Walking to the Edge of Desire: My Husband Reads Romance

    In this anniversary‑week episode, my husband Jason steps into my world of romance novels—book boyfriends, monster lovers, and all. Far from his usual orbit of music and design, he shares his grounded take on desire and trust, and reflects on his own threshold moments. Together we explore what it means to walk to the edge of fear, fantasy, and intimacy—and how crossing into each other’s worlds can transform us. Get full access to Vanessa Couto at vanessacouto.substack.com/subscribe

    59 min
  8. Crossing the Threshold: On Liminality, Descent, and Becoming

    10/09/2025

    Crossing the Threshold: On Liminality, Descent, and Becoming

    In this episode of Romancing the Threshold, I’m joined by astrologer and storyteller Brian Clark to explore the threshold as both pause and passage — a place of shedding, becoming, and crossing into the unknown. Together we speak of descent and darkness as the womb of beginnings, of rituals and beauty as companions for change, and of curiosity and imagination as lanterns that guide us through life’s crossings. Get full access to Vanessa Couto at vanessacouto.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 16m
  9. The Art of Falling in Love with the In‑Between

    09/26/2025

    The Art of Falling in Love with the In‑Between

    In this first episode of Romancing the Threshold, I invite you into the charged space of the in‑between—the moment before the door opens. I share the inspiration behind the podcast, how it becomes the hearth where On Liminality and The Healing Power of Fluff meet, and why this unfolding feels like a romance in the making. Get full access to Vanessa Couto at vanessacouto.substack.com/subscribe

    19 min
  • 9 Episodes

About

Exploring the in‑between: where imagination, romance, and the soul’s journey meet. vanessacouto.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Vanessa Couto
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    9
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Vanessa Couto
  • Show Website
    Romancing the Threshold