We Are Enough

You don’t get the beauty unless you get the slowness. Says James Hillman, and it’s where Ryan and I started part two of Inanna’s myth.

This week Dr Ryan Nielsen and I bring Inanna back up from the underworld. At every gate she picks up what she had to take off on the way down, and none of it means what it used to.

“She's going to ascend. And at each of the gates, the way that I imagine it, she takes those same artifacts, those same symbols, and there's a reclamation of a living relationship with those symbols that is now rooted in her experience of rebirth and her reunion with the Great Mother that happened in the underworld.” says Ryan.

Tune in for the counterfeits, the difference between collaborating with archetypal forces and being dissolved by them, the sacred fly, and reverence for beauty as a new kind of authority.

If you haven't watched Part 1, you can catch it here.

Connect with Ryan

IG @yourveryownmyth

꩜ Astrology Personalised www.yourveryownmyth.com

Connect With Me (Vive Oldham)

IG @vive_oldham

📩 Get my emails – viveandco.kit.com/get-emails

👉 For 1:1 sessions – www.viveoldham.com

Mentioned: James Hillman, Marion Woodman, C.G. Jung, Bill Plotkin, Michael Meade, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Carly Mountain, Lorie Eve Dechar (Five Spirits), Simone Grace Seol

Content note: We want you to know that we do mention experiences of suicidal ideations in this episode. If that’s close to home: Lifeline 13 11 14 (AU), 988 (US).

"Aesthetics are a matter of life and death," quotes Ryan, relaying the words of our mutual friend and highly skilled therapist Gillian. That's where Ryan Nielsen and I start, with Venus/Inanna and the 4,000-year-old story of her descent to the underworld.

Inanna, queen of heaven and earth, bangs on the door of the underworld and demands to be let in. At each of seven gates she is instructed to relinquish something: her crown, her lapis beads, her breastplate, her measuring rod, until she arrives with nothing of her upper-world self left.

"What is this?" she demands of the gatekeeper, and every time he says the same thing. Quiet, Inanna. The ways of the underworld are perfect.

We take our time working through the myth, toggling between our in-the-moment experience and the events of the myth itself, allowing for the pace of our own descent.

We recorded on the day Venus disappeared from the evening sky. She comes back as the morning star on 29 October. This is Part 1. Part 2, Inanna's return to the upper world, is coming.

Among many things, Ryan Nielsen is a Jungian scholar, author, jazz musician, somatic skills coach and reluctant astrologer, living in Utah with his wife Holly, their three kids and Holly's Garden.

We Are Enough with Vive Oldham, recorded on Bibbulmun country, Manjimup, Western Australia, in Kambarang, the second spring.

꩜ Connect with Ryan
IG @yourveryownmyth
Astrology Personalised: yourveryownmyth.com

꩜ Connect with me
IG @vive_oldham
📩 Get my emails: viveandco.kit.com/get-emails
👉 For 1:1 sessions: viveoldham.com

REFERENCES

Books on the myth
Sylvia Brinton Perera, Descent to the Goddess: A Way of Initiation for Women
Carly Mountain, Descent & Rising: Women's Stories & the Embodiment of the Inanna Myth
"Inana's descent to the nether world", Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (Oxford)

Writers and thinkers we mention
Liz Greene, writing on Venus in astrology
Marion Woodman, lunar roots and solar shoots, and the Dance of Three
James Hillman, "Venus is our recourse", and Alchemical Psychology (the essay on alchemical blue)
Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves (life/death/life, The Red Shoes)
Hafiz, The Gift
Michael Meade, emotions come in pairs
James Hollis, on living our resonance
Perdita Finn, Mothers of Magic: Summoning the Wisdom of Our Ancestors
Kimberly Ann Johnson, Call of the Wild
Brené Brown and Roshi Joan Halifax, strong back, soft front

Teachers and practices
BodyDreaming, Marian Dunlea
Chris James, Sounds Wonderful
Jaye Marolla, The Body Innate

Why does change feel so crunchy, even when we know it is a part of life?

This is for you if you KNOW you want to change and grow but it also feels like total crap, and it's hard to get past that to the good stuff. Plus - you don't subscribe to the extreme approach of 'no pain, no gain' or 'just be chill'.

I cover why the discomfort you feel during change is not a sign that something is wrong or bad. Rather, it is the very mechanism through which your wings are being strengthened.

I share nervous system informed, therapeutic concepts including how we can expand your “window of tolerance,” and take a mythic lens on the butterfly cocoon metaphor and why struggle is necessary for robustness. Plus I touch on western culture’s obsession with comfort and how it has hijacked our resilience, and why change needs to be witnessed in and by community in order for it to truly take hold.

Whether you are hitting midlife and wondering what the hell is happening to your body, trying to parent in an overstimulated and information overloaded environment or just trying to change basic daily habits when it comes to your wellbeing, this conversation will help you reframe your relationship with struggle and trust the intelligence of the change that is happening within you.

👇 CHAPTERS:

0:00 — Why Change Feels So Hard: Expanding Your Window of Tolerance
1:33 — How to Relate to Change as Natural, Not Enemy
2:22 — The Danger of Pathologizing Change
3:16 — How Comfort Hijacked Our Resilience
6:48 — Why We Numb Out When Change Arrives
8:22 — Change as Composting: Nature's Cycle of Rot and Rebirth
10:51 — The Butterfly Cocoon: Why Struggle Is Necessary
13:59 — Building Inner Sturdiness and a Secure Base
15:44 — Resourcing Yourself for Change (The "Olympic Athlete" Analogy)
19:52 — The Role of Guides, Elders, and "Many Mothers"
23:19 — The Importance of Being Witnessed in Your Change
31:19 — If Your Change Isn't Witnessed, It Doesn't Take
35:47 — The Container: Why Change Needs Structure to Work
39:54 — The Reframe: Your Discomfort Is Your Wings Being Strengthened

✨ Connect & Work With Me

IG @vive_and_co
📩 My emails - Love from the inside, direct to you - viveandco.kit.com/get-emails
👉 For 1:1 sessions - https://www.viveandco.com/workwithme

This podcast was brought to you by On Track Studio

🌐 www.ontrackstudio.com.au
📩 [email protected]

This episode is for you if perfectionism, disordered eating, or a never-ending exhaustion from managing your life feels familiar.

From Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estés' Women Who Run With the Wolves, we trace the story of an orphan whose handmade red shoes — her own resourcefulness, her own creative impulse — get burned by the old woman who takes her in.

What happens to the young girl once that connection to herself is gone? Obsession, susceptibility, a rebellion that never finds its legs...

We talk about what Stacy's research revealed about the real order of operations in binge/purge cycles, Jung's concept of the "provisional life," and why having sane mirrors around you — people who reflect back what's actually there — matters more than the 'tools' on offer.

Kathleen Nora Bower is a quantum seamstress and shadow alchemist, curator of global online summits, and course manager for the Global School of Quantum Evolution.

Stacy Dicker, PhD is a clinical depth psychologist with 20+ years of experience working with eating disorders, relational trauma, and Jungian psychology.

This conversation follows on from The Antidote, a three-part series devoted to liberating us (women) from the pathologization of our bodies.

00:00 – Who this episode is for
02:11 – Why we're revisiting The Antidote
04:16 – The Red Shoes, from Women Who Run With the Wolves
09:00 – The story, told in full
13:00 – "She is off in La La Land" — rebellion without direction
27:00 – The dissertation study: 26 women, one answer
34:00 – Sane mirrors and the free-range egg experiment
41:00 – Domestication and the wild woman
45:00 – The provisional life (Jung)
56:00 – Coming into relationship with the friction of life
58:00 – What's next: the Antidote groundswell

📩 My emails — Love from the inside, direct to you
https://viveandco.kit.com/get-emails">viveandco.kit.com/get-emails

👉 For 1:1 sessions
https://www.viveandco.com/workwithme">viveandco.com/workwithme

IG: @vive_and_co

Kathleen Nora Bower — quantum seamstress, shadow alchemist, curator of global online summits, and course manager for the Global School of Quantum Evolution.

🔗 https://www.kathleennorabower.com/">kathleennorabower.com

Stacy Dicker, PhD — clinical depth psychologist with 20+ years working with eating disorders, relational trauma, and Jungian psychology.

🔗 https://stacydickerphd.com/">stacydickerphd.com

This conversation follows on from The Antidote, our three-part series exploring the pathologization of women's bodies.

🔗 https://www.metamorphosis-global-summit.com/the-antidote">The Antidote

📖 Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

🌙 Poems read by Stacy
Hollie McNish — Pass Times
Ella Hicks — Untitled

You’re allowed to stop pushing — you can take a pause. In fact, a simple pause will help you more than you could even imagine.

This episode explores why constant effort can leave you feeling depleted and disconnected, and how even the smallest moments of pause can create space in your nervous system for something new.

We dive into the cultural conditioning that teaches us rest is laziness, the natural rhythms that remind us rest is essential rather than optional, and simple tiny rituals that help you reconnect with your body’s wisdom.

Whether you’re in burnout, feeling lost after years of always pushing forward, or simply sensing that something in your life needs to change, this is your permission to pause.

👇 CHAPTERS:
0:00 — Permission to Stop Pushing
1:35 — Why Perpetual Pushing Leads to Disconnection
2:15 — Nature's Proof That Rest Is Non-Negotiable
3:04 — How the Industrial Revolution Broke Our Rhythm
4:20 — Tarot Metaphor: The Knight of Swords vs. the Wheel of Fortune
7:08 — Why Your Best Ideas Come During Downtime
9:14 — The Midlife Crisis Is Really a Navigation Crisis
9:43 — How Micro-Adjustments Prevent Years of Misdirection
12:56 — Stepping Into the Unknown (Eight of Cups)
15:48 — Your Body's Intelligence: Learning to Listen
17:08 — Trusting What Your Body Already Knows
20:27 — Why Society Trains Us to "Forge Ahead"
22:52 — Tiny Rituals: A Gentle Way to Start Pausing
24:16 — When Everything Falls Apart (The Tower)
25:03 — The Compost Metaphor: Breakdown = New Growth
26:35 — "But I Don't Have Time to Rest" — Addressed
29:02 — How to Practice Tiny Rituals in Real Life
33:00 — Celebration & Fullness (Ten of Cups)
34:42 — Moving Between Effort and Rest

If this resonated, subscribe so you don't miss Episode 3 — and share this with the friend who needs to hear that they are already enough.

✨ Connect & Work With Me
IG | @vive_and_co
🎧 Book a 1:1 Consult Call
👉 https://www.viveandco.com/workwithme

This podcast was brought to you by On Track Studio
🌐 www.ontrackstudio.com.au
📩 [email protected]

What if we've just been looking at life through a limited lens?

In this episode of We Are Enough, I sit down with one of my oldest friends, psychotherapist, astrologer and mythologist Chris Skidmore, to explore what myth still has to teach us about being human.

Together we explore what it means to re-sensitise the body so we can trust our appetite, our desire and our intuition again. We ask what happens when we stop asking, "What's wrong with me?" and instead become curious about the living creative tension in our own stories.

Our conversation moves beyond a pathological lens and into something older — a mythic way of relating with ourselves. One that doesn't reduce us to problems to be solved, but invites us into relationship with our imagination, our creative expression and the mystery of our own becoming.

Together we explore:

• Why we've become disconnected from our appetite, desire and intuition
• How strategic marketing has hijacked our attention and our capacity to feel truly satisfied
• Why myth isn't about escaping reality, but about revealing deeper truths
• How imagination becomes a pathway back to self-trust
• Why creativity isn't a luxury — it's part of what brings us to life
• The tension between belonging and authentic self-expression
• What the Frog King fairy tale reveals about bringing our gifts into the world
• Why comparison causes us to swallow our own creative fire

One of my favourite moments is Chris describing myth as "a lie that reveals the truth."

This isn't a conversation about becoming someone 'new'.

It's about becoming playfully reacquainted with your own agency.

CHAPTERS

00:00 — Welcome
01:15 — Re-sensitising the Body
05:15 — Myth: A Lie That Reveals the Truth
13:20 — The Leo New Moon & Creative Expression
18:15 — What Does It Mean to Feel Satiated?
25:00 — Why We Swallow Our Creative Gifts
30:45 — The Frog King & Bringing Your Gifts Into the World

What image, idea or moment stuck out for you?

Leave a comment below — I'd love to hear.

If you'd like to continue exploring the body, imagination and the stories we carry, subscribe to We Are Enough and you'll hear more of these conversations.

✨ CONNECT & KEEP EXPLORING

Tiny Rituals
A free guide to creating small, daily rituals that nourish you.
Download Tiny Rituals here →

Instagram
@vive_and_co

Vive & Co
Visit viveandco.com →

CHRIS SKIDMORE

To learn more about Chris Skidmore's work and his podcast On The Soul's Terms:
Visit On The Soul's Terms →

What if the pattern isn’t a lack of willpower, but a mismatch between what you’re asking of yourself and what your system can actually hold?

In the first episode of We Are Enough, Vive looks closely at discipline — not as a virtue, but as something that can quietly chip away at self-trust. In its place, she offers a different orientation: building capacity. The kind that grows from inside the body, rather than being imposed from the outside.

You’ll hear how self-sabotage makes sense when viewed through the nervous system, why pushing harder often backfires, and what shifts when pleasure becomes something you can stay with rather than override.

This is where we can start, together — in relationship with yourself, in small moments.

Jump To  A Chapter

00:00 – Welcome to We Are Enough

04:00 – Why Discipline Is Working Against You

10:00 – The Shame Cycle: Deva's Personal Story

18:00 – What Is Capacity & Why It Changes Everything

24:00 – Pleasure as the Portal to Real Growth

30:00 – 3 Half-Truths About Pleasure (Debunked)

If this landed for you, subscribe so you don't miss Episode 2 — and share this with the friend who needs to hear that they are already enough. 

✨ Connect & Work With MeIG | @vive_and_co

🎧 Book a 1:1 Consult Call👉 https://www.viveandco.com/workwithme

This podcast was brought to you by On Track Studio🌐 http://www.ontrackstudio.com.au📩 [email protected]

Hi, I'm Vive Oldham — Somatic Educator, Mum, Sister, Aunty and Artist. 

This show is about growing into our humanity - and into our generativity. We can do that through the body, through the psyche, and through rediscovering pleasure as a source of capacity.  So we really know what nourishes us. 

Every fortnight I’m exploring the question: what if our hunger and appetite was never the problem — what if we’ve just  lost touch with what it feels like when it's been met?

Follow along on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

Let's begin.