Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause

Many of us who follow astrology recall our first Saturn Return in our late 20's. Some people refer to your Saturn Return as a "cosmic rites of passage", a time period that happens between your 27th and 29th year of life and can last about 3 years (what fun). It is during that time that the planet Saturn returns to the the sign it was in the moment you were born. When it returns,  Saturn brings with it adulthood rites, lessons, questions, decisions and relationships. Saturn is the planet of life lessons that can break you down to show you what you are made of to build you back up into who you can be. This planet is not only about hard work, it is about mastery. This returning to core of your nature, the stuff you are made of, is no cake walk, however it is what you make of it. As with most things in the cosmic world, Saturn returns on a cycle and about 27-29 years after it's first visit, Saturn returns again (Oh hello there.....).

Our second Saturn Return is a bit like a looking glass into the first. What do you see? What lessons did we learn there about identity, choices, relationships, career, etc.? How are those lessons resurfacing in both a retrospective as well as with new choices as to who we are while also being initiated into eldership?  What will this planetary transit offer us this time in our late 50's and will we be open to those lessons? 

In this episode of the Black Girls' Guide to Surviving Menopause, I had the distinct pleasure to speak with Barbara Jessie-Black who is entering her second Saturn Return. We talked about the lessons and gifts of this moment and how they connect to  her feelings around identity, relationships, openness and change. Barbara was in Berlin, West Germany and lived overseas until the age of 16, when her father’s last military tour brought the family to Ft. Gordon, GA. She received her BBA from Augusta University in Augusta, GA, before moving to North Carolina where she has lived since. 

During her 15 year career as a retail manager with a national retail chain, Barbara received her MBA from Meredith College, in Raleigh, NC and became co-founder of a not for profit organization whose mission it is to search for innovative ways to achieve socio-economic equalities in communities through holistic and entrepreneurship based education, to include education in “21st Century Jobs” technology and the STEM model.

Currently, Barbara is the President/CEO of CommunityWorx, a 68-year old organization, whose mission it is to enrich lives by building collaborative partnerships and transforming charitable donations into educational and community investments. Barbara considers herself a “life-long student” of all things holistic and spiritual, with emphasis on how those concepts influence ones activism. She is fluent in German, a yoga enthusiast, and includes in her spiritual practice. 

" I found god in myself
& I loved her/I loved her fiercely”-- Ntozake Shange