#2-005: You In Space; Saturn, Astrology and Your Life with Barb Horn

This is the first in a two-part conversation.  

Prepare to get your mind blown!

Barb Horn joined us to explore the profound impact of Saturn in Pisces and how astrology can empower you in your evolutionary journey. 

Barb, a voice coach, alchemical hypnotist, and astrology enthusiast, guides us through the unique dance between science and the stars. From her three decades of experience with the Colorado Department of Water and Wildlife to her deep dive into astrology, Barb Horn emerges as a fascinating bridge between worlds.

Our conversation focuses on Saturn, the ruler of time and maturation.

Barb sees Saturn, often referred to as a taskmaster,  as a cosmic mentor who nudges us to grow physically, spiritually, and emotionally. 

Saturn's archetypes, from the benevolent king to the personal trainer, help us to realize our life purpose.

Whether you're navigating your Saturn return or seeking to understand the rhythms of cosmic energy, Barb Horn's insightful teachings bring clarity and inspiration. 

So, buckle up and get ready for a cosmic classroom experience with Saturn as your wise guide! 🪐🌌

GUEST BIO

Barb Horn is a lover of the human condition and passionate about our vast multi-dimensionality. Embodying the practical and mystical, reality and imagination, mixing science, psychology, astrology and the fool, she is a transformational alchemist, changing the world one smile, laugh or hug at a time. 

She worked for Colorado Parks and Wildlife for 33 years, founding a community science program, the Colorado River Watch. She is considered a national leader and expert for community scientists serving in various roles, commissions and committees. Today, she is a Voice and Values Coach, Self-Compassion Trainer, Racial Justice From the Heart Trainer and a Community Science Consultant.  A Colorado native, she claims she reached her maximum potential at five years old and has been trying to get it back since. 

You can reach her at scienceofbarb at gmail dot com 

Join her FREE astrological or energetic forecast for 2024.  Please register at this link and you will be sent the zoom link and journal prompts.

 TRANSCRIPT

Barb Horn:
Sure. Here we go. Got it. Alright.

Aminata Desert Rose:
Hello. Hello, Barb Horn. Welcome to the Mother Tree community, the Mother Tree Network.

Barb Horn:
Hello. Are you? Thank you. Thank you. Good to be here, Aminata.

Aminata Desert Rose:
It is so good to see you. So, Barb, I know that you are an amazing voice coach and that you are an Alchemical hypnotist and a facilitator, and a scientist, someone who's worked for Colorado Department of Water And wildlife for, like, 3 decades. So you are a woman who's, like, branching the sciences and the arts. But Do people know that you are also a student of the skies and astrology? That's what we're gonna talk about today. So, so, Barb, I wonder if we could just just just start at the beginning. For you well, first of all, if you could just tell us briefly, like, what made you even wanna think about astrology, because you're a scientist, and usually scientists are a little bit skeptical of something like astrology.

Barb Horn:
Yeah. And one of the things I learned as a scientist was that that we think we know a 110% of what we're learning when we Actually maybe know about a 10th of the percent. So there's a lot of different levels of science, and there's science that's sort of more abstract quantum physics, for example. And I always was fascinated, of course, with the sky and the stars. I mean, it's hard not to be when you go out there and look at look at all the lights, and I have a great Sky view myself at night here.

Aminata Desert Rose:
Is that because I was gonna say, is that because you live in New Mexico? So maybe you get a sky.

Barb Horn:
Well, I do live in the southwest corner of Colorado right right close to New New Mexico, and we do have dark skies. But, you know, growing up, I I also I was just fascinated with I'm fascinated with energy and human behavior and the connection to why we do what we do, like the psychology and the psyche. And, of course, if you start to be curious about why we're here, Why we do what we do, you inevitably come across these energies in the sky and how they work And learners and are there for us. And so it's in my own personal life birth chart to be a student of the skies, but Everything in my chart says be a teacher, be a student of astrology, be a healer, but you're not gonna do it in any traditional way. So It was on my path of self discovery and self learning and self love and under trying to understand relationships and my own growth, my own dark nights, if you will, that I became a student of wanting to use astrology to learn more about who I am and why I'm here And why you're here and why we're all together and what we're here to do.

Aminata Desert Rose:
And it's so As you're speaking, Barb, the the the sun just broke through the clouds where I'm staying. So, it's it's just a beautiful reminder. You know what? We are on a planet, and we live we are in space.

Barb Horn:
Mhmm.

Aminata Desert Rose:
And it's just such a weird thing because we don't think of ourselves that way, but we Are in space. So, I wonder, speaking of planets,

Barb Horn:
Can you

Aminata Desert Rose:
just give us a very basic understanding of how planets relate to astrology?

Barb Horn:
Yeah. So it's here's a real simple way for the mother tree network to connect. You know? It's it's easy and tangible for us to realize that we're the same. Our bodies are the same material as the soil and the plants and the animals that are around us, but we're also made of the same material as planets and stars and the cosmos. So we really are connected vertically and horizontally to everybody and everything. It's just so tan intangible, and we've spent a long time being disconnected from our relationship and the energy that is between us and the sky. So my approach to astrology is it's really what we live. So it's it's who we are and what we live, And it's we're all part of this cocreative grid of life that there's all these matrixes and light grids and going on in orbits, And we're all part of that, and we're part of the cocreation of our own lives and the life on this planet and the whole grid.

Barb Horn:
And so astrology just maps out for us these cycles that happen through these archetypal patterns And these cycles that we can harness and awaken the the and empower our individual potentiality and the potentiality of being 1 on the planet with with each other. So we all came here to experience and grow and what our souls have never experienced before. So using astrology to map out our life blueprint. See, we have our own 12 houses that each have the zodiac signs in them.

Aminata Desert Rose:
Okay. Wait. Before you go there before you go there, I just wanna take it a little bit slower. So first of all, you said that we're vertically and horizontally connected.

Barb Horn:
Yep.

Aminata Desert Rose:
So when you say vertically connected, you mean we're connected with the stars above us?

Barb Horn:
Yeah. So think of you meant by and say we're vertically? You are the life force between heaven and earth. And if you stand there and think about your roots going down into Earth and your energy and your chalk your energy system moving up and out beyond your head and in the heavens. That's your connection like a tree branching up and out, and your leaves are now in the cosmos and can reach up, up, up, up, up into depending on what your beliefs are, there's no right or wrong here. Way up into the heavens where your guides are, your angels are, where your loved ones have transitioned, where you came from, and arranged for your sole contract or your life agreement or the reason you're here, whatever your language is for that, you know, comes down into this body, this density, and then you live horizontally in relationship with plants and animals and others. And so we are we are this vertical and horizontal energetic being, Which I like to think the nexus of all of that is everything is moving through our hearts. Does that help?

Aminata Desert Rose:
Yes. That is that's that's beautiful. That is beautiful. That just really helped me understand. It gave me the picture.

Barb Horn:
Yeah. Yeah.

Aminata Desert Rose:
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you were talking about your approach to astrology. Let's just say a little bit more about that. So given that you understand who we are as vertical and horizontal, And so how does astrology help us?

Barb Horn:
Well, so it there's cycles, metacycles, and cycles, you know, the planets, all the planets, Pluto, Mars, Jupiter are cycling in their own orbits, and we like to think they're circular and oval, but they're really not. But they're doing their own thing Evolutionary. Earth is doing its own thing. It takes a year to go around the sun, and and as it goes around the sun, it goes through all the zodiac signs. So it's it's moving around, you know, Leo, Aries, pair you know, once it you you actually have a birthday once a year as that cycle goes around. You know, Mercury goes around the sun 3 times a year every 88 days. And if you go out to the far end of the Cosmos, you know, Pluto takes 248 years human years to to make that cycle through all the zodiac signs. And so as all these planets are moving, They have these very specific we call them archetypal patterns, but very simple energies that are out sent out into the grid, if you will, of cocreation that we're part of, and then they speak through.

Barb Horn:
So planets are kind of the actors that need it need a stage. They need to be axed through somebody, so their script and their show is whatever zodiac sign they're in. So do you hear sorry. Go ahead.

Aminata Desert Rose:
Well, I so back to Pluto. Yeah. So does Pluto take Does Pluto take over 200 years just to circle or orbit around the sun? Okay. Good. So we're being very basic here. Thank you. And it takes us 365 days. Okay.

Aminata Desert Rose:
I got you. So there are these cycles. And then you were saying these planets each have energies That are cocreating with us

Barb Horn:
Correct.

Aminata Desert Rose:
Here on

Barb Horn:
Earth. Through the zodiac signs. And so that's going on out there. And think about now when you were born when you were born, there was this specific snapshot of the sky, And that's your sun sign, your moon sign, your rising sign for those of you that know that stuff, but you actually have this Developmental cycle you go through of these 12 different houses of your identity, your self worth, your partners, your career, these This this developmental cycle that you go through your entire life, and there's a zodiac sign that's ruling each one of those houses for you. So you are not just your sun sign or just your moon sign or rising sign. You're all of the zodiac signs. So here you are mirroring the cosmos, And you're an unique individual. You no one will have the same planetary alignment when you were born, Aminata, for another, 4,000,000 800 years.

Barb Horn:
That's how unique you are. Oh,

Aminata Desert Rose:
oh, okay.

Barb Horn:
Right? And so you're at this co creative force Working with the planets from when you were born, and that's intersecting the grids of what's going on as the planets, are moving all the time. And that's why when you hear

Aminata Desert Rose:
And I just want our listeners Yeah. I just want our listeners to to just keep remembering that We are working vertically and horizontally. Yep. You know, just let's keep that image in mind because I think that's really critical. So we're saying we're getting all this energy information, Patterns, that we're cocreating with.

Barb Horn:
And I'm gonna give you a real specific example. This sort of sets the stage because we're gonna work through how Saturn does its work. So here you are sitting here with your own unique sole contract agreement, life purpose, Your own way of expressing through through Leo and through Pisces, through your sun sign, navigating your world, this horizontal. Meanwhile, these planets are moving up there, and so you might hear, well, Mercury's gonna be retrograde in a week, or Mhmm. Gosh. We just moved, like, what we're gonna talk about There is Saturn Saturn's out there doing his orbit, his thing, and he just moved from Aquarius into Pisces. Well, what does that mean? There's the astronomy of it, which is what I just said, But then what does that mean energetically? And that's what I like to do is is today for me, what does it mean for you? What does it mean? What does it mean for us collectively When planets are moving these transits, what does it mean when Mercury go? What does it mean we have an eclipse? What is and we are through in a very, very Special unique time because we're we're changing, 8. We just finished an age, which is a 25,000 year cycle without going into a lot of detail, and we're also changing eras, which I can go to the astronomy of it, but, basically, what you wanna understand or feel is what does that mean, Barb? What does that mean? We we are moving, and I'm sure you've all heard this language, From the age of Pisces or the era of Pisces is correct, to the era of Aquarius, and that's sort of this Larger cycle that's going on that takes a long time.

Barb Horn:
We're in an era for 2000 years. So then Okay.

Aminata Desert Rose:
So if I'm getting you Yep. So if I'm getting you right, what you're saying is, okay. So so I am this this this being on the horizontal whatever vertical thing, And I'm I'm living inside of these errors. Yep. These massive errors. So a 25,000 year cycle. Okay. And when there's a shift in the 25,000 year cycle, there's a shift in me and what I can even accomplish or how I experience life.

Aminata Desert Rose:
Is that

Barb Horn:
Yeah. So let me get let me get more tangible. So the 2000 years before the birth of Christ to AD was the age of area Aries. Then the next 2000 year period, A d one to 2000 roughly was the age of our era of Pisces. And now we're moving in to the Age of Aquarius. So what does that mean? That's all jargon. Whatever era that we're in, The archetypal energies of that sign, so Pisces in the Age of Pisces, will dominate. It's not the only one, but it will dominate our values and beliefs and the systems and the structures that we create And thus the experiences we have.

Barb Horn:
So we incarnated, everyone on this call incarnated and may chose to incarnate during that era. And all of the energies and systems that that it created in the light and in the shadow. So to understand what those are, we have to understand the archetype or the patterns of Pisces, which we're gonna talk about in a minute. And It's it's amazing to be born if you think about these cycles. So if it takes Pluto 248 years to move signs, What are the odds that you and I would be alive for 50, 80 years in that time frame? And we are. So we are live right now when what we call the transpersonal planets are all changing, and those are the planets way out there like Pluto, Uranus, and Neptune. Then as you come closer to the Sun, there's Jupiter and Saturn, And they're unique because they're as far as our eye can see without, you know, with telescopes and well, without fancy, fancy equipment. And they kinda have 2 sides.

Barb Horn:
They have look in towards Earth and the sun, so they have this personal sort of side, but they also have a side that looks out to the Transform transpersonal, impersonal, the sort of transformative plan planets. Like, you might have heard Pluto is like the planet of death and rebirth. Then you come inside, and you have Mercury and Venus and and Mars, and we call those the personable planets because when they're rotating and sort of their energies are in our orb, the work is more personal versus social versus then transpersonal, like impersonal. So I'm gonna Right. Right? So So, again, we are cocreating with those big meta cycles, the smaller cycles within that, and then our own personal cycles.

Aminata Desert Rose:
Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Okay. So here we are in 2023. Yep.

Aminata Desert Rose:
And you're saying we're in this moment where, Pluto, which has this 240 plus year cycle, is Moving, and what are the chances of that? So that's pretty exciting. That's a that's a new thing. But you also said you wanted to To get more maybe more specific about on a personal level. So I bet you a lot of people have heard about Saturn, maybe with some trepidation.

Barb Horn:
I mean,

Aminata Desert Rose:
you bad luck. You mentioned, you know, Mercury. Yeah. Yeah. You've mentioned Mercury met retrogrades, and I know that goes around a lot. But I do wanna talk with you about Saturn today In particular, if that's okay. And maybe we could just start with what are the energies that are associated with Saturn? And and, Barb, for people who don't who are like, yeah. But why would those energies associate with Saturn? Maybe you could just tell us what the energies are and why The people who created astrology Yeah.

Aminata Desert Rose:
Thought Saturn represented those things.

Barb Horn:
Yeah. So Without getting all philosophical, in the age of Pisces for 2000 years, you gotta think way back in the beginning of that age. There wasn't technology. Like, people didn't do FaceTime and Instagram and binge out on TV. They sat and looked at the stars, and and the sky was Filled with stars. If you ever have the opportunity to go to a certified Dark Knight, I mean, you'll see how really many they are, and so there's a lot of wisdom there as they would watch these cycles And these patterns happen, and they began in those eras, they began these they attached stories, myths, Greek myths.

Aminata Desert Rose:
Mhmm.

Barb Horn:
And there's you know, you can argue about even the patriarchy in those, but that's how they got these qualities. And they were really connected. They were super connected to this vertical energy field that we have in a way that we aren't today, that we're actually reclaiming as we move into the the era of Aquarius. And so these grief these mythologies assign names to to Saturn in these in these archetypal patterns. So let's just explore one to to see, you know, how it how it plays out. So Saturn is male in in the astrology, and we often call him he's like the taskmaster. He's the father energy. So these what I mean by archetypal energies, I mean, when I say these words, they're they're universal.

Barb Horn:
When I say it's a father energy, Today in these times, you understand what I mean. It's like a universal energetic you get it. And so Saturn is again, planets are these actors, and they have these personas that they then wanna come on stage with and play out, and they do that through the zodiac signs. So Saturn, in a nutshell, job in the sky, the cosmos in the sky, so again, Mercury's job is a communicator. Jupiter's job is expansion. Mars's job is to be the warrior and the fighter and initiator. So Saturn's job as a Father energy, if you will, and the ruler of time, Kronos. I don't have time to go into the myth, but it's there.

Barb Horn:
You can Google it. Saturn just simply wants us to mature, wants us to grow up and mature, kind of that Tough love, and that's what it presents us in our lessons, if you will, to grow up in every way, physically, spiritually, emotionally, Mystically, you know, cosmically. It's like a soul's growth. Not it is Like, going from kindergarten to 1st grade. Like, you can't skip. You can't go to college and have not gone to kindergarten. You can't skip your lessons.

Aminata Desert Rose:
Okay. So that's what you mean by Kronos. It's like step by step growth rather than quantum leaping. Saturn is more Methodical?

Barb Horn:
Well, Kronos Kronos is, the Greek word for time. So it's through the mythology of Kronos and time that we that we came up with the human construct of time. So Saturn wants us to mature to grow up, and he gets a bad rap because It's the hard work of growing up. Think about the kid who wants to play and doesn't want to do his chores or her chores or, you know, The the person who wants to be the Olympic athlete but doesn't really wanna put in the time and the practice. Right? That's that's Saturn Right there.

Aminata Desert Rose:
He wants us to do Saturn is like time and practice.

Barb Horn:
Here's Saturn words. When you hear someone talking about Hard work, discipline, commitment, patience, obligations, responsibility, accountability, those are all in the realm of Saturn in our vertical relationship with the cosmos, and he rules time because he knows Our life here and our our our incarnation is short, relatively speaking, and he wants us Mhmm. To do what we came here to do as souls. He wants us to mature

Aminata Desert Rose:
to stay

Barb Horn:
on track. Stay on track. He's not a trickster. He's not a punisher. Mhmm. We all have periods of time, and we don't want to we just don't want to do the work. We're lazy, so we will be triggered in our life when we're Off track. How does that show up? When we're being lazy, we're ignoring the signs that are saying move in this direction, Get out of that relationship.

Barb Horn:
When we're distracted, we're scattered, we're asleep, we're avoiding, we're ignoring. You know, Saturn's gonna knock on our door, in particular, when then it's transiting. So then we're gonna talk a little bit more about how do we look at so here are some archetypes For the listeners, you know, that so for example, these are just archetypes that don't have a lot of Great associations with them, but father time, death, the grim reaper, the wise old man, The tyrant, the patriarch, the benevolent king, the sheriff, the skeptic, the father, the disciplinarian, the fundamentalist, the egotist, The communist, the conservative, the oppressor, the master, the scientist, the personal trainer, these are all energies that sometimes when I say them, they're positive. Sometimes they rather kind of negative because that is Saturn can express through us in these archetypes in a light Expression, like healthy, helpful, or a shadow?

Aminata Desert Rose:
Like a personal trainer. Like, I I I love that because a personal trainer is somebody who you work with to help you reach your goal. And what Yep. They do is they stay with you while you do your repetitions. Did you do 3 sets? You gotta do 3 sets, not 2.

Barb Horn:
So You can't

Aminata Desert Rose:
shuffle. It is methodical. It's okay. No shortcuts. Right. Or cuts. Right. Right.

Aminata Desert Rose:
I get it. And

Barb Horn:
So Saturn will also because it's wanting us to you know, our soul came here to do something it's never done before in any other lives or incarnations and whatever your beliefs are. So we we work hard in our human Wiring to stay comfortable and stay the same. We've arrived, and I'm gonna explain this as Saturn matures us here, which will help you. So Saturn's always bringing up in us energetically this tension between the old and the new. You know, you got comfortable. You learned this. Okay. So you learned that rep.

Barb Horn:
Now let's let's challenge your body in a new way using the personal trainer. Let's challenge it to Reach another peak, you know, in in a direction that's gonna require more work, more work, more work, more work, more work, more work, more work, or change. And we Inherently are wired to not want to change. We're hot we're wired to wanna stay the same. So there's always this tension. Another reason Saturn gets a bad rep between the old and the new, And you can relate to what's going on out in the world at this tension between the old and the new, you know, in our evolution. So we all, in our own personal birth charts, by the why the by when we were born and the time of day and and, You know, our rising sign and our sun sign have a personal Saturn dictate that we're working over and over, that we're maturing and getting really good at, You know, where our mess becomes our message, and, all I can share that with you is if folks sign up for the the 12 lessons of Saturn's modules I'm gonna be teaching a little later, but let's look at you've all out there probably heard of your Saturn return. Well, what the heck is that? So if we know Saturn's job is to mature, and it takes Saturn 28 years, Earth years, to go around all the zodiac signs, it spends about 2

Aminata Desert Rose:
and a half And that means around the sun. When you say go around all the zodiac signs, do you mean a complete an orbit around the sun? An or think of it

Barb Horn:
as an orbit around the sun Just like the Earth does.

Aminata Desert Rose:
Oh, and as you go okay. And as you go around the sun, as you make your orbit, you're hitting different signs. Right. So think of the Earth. You're going through different.

Barb Horn:
The Earth spends 30 days in Libra, and then it goes 30 days into Virgo and then 30 days, and it it follows a sequence. And astrology, as as we live it, is sequential. Its growth and its challenges are all cumulative, and and it's really actually brilliant or or Sequenced. So Mhmm. Saturn has its own orbit, its own path, which isn't necessarily circular, but for it works to think of it that way. As it goes, spends two and a half years in Aquarius, then it's spending two and a half years in Pisces. And while it's in there, it's being this plenary taskmaster through the qualities of Pisces. Okay.

Barb Horn:
Right? So we're gonna talk about that next, But let's just see how Saturn works in your own life. How does it mature you? So if it takes 28 years to go around through all the signs, that means in our 0 years to 28 years old, it takes 28 years for Saturn to go from where it Started in your own birth chart back to that same start point, and that's that's your when you're about 28, 29 years old. And what happens if you were to map out those of you on this, call here, if you were to map out, just pick out key watershed moments in your life that were transformative, that changed you in some way, positive, negative, both, the whole thing. You Mhmm. They're gonna correspond to these time frames. Not all of them, but many of them. Mhmm. If you can think about where you were when you were 28, 29 years old, and you're getting triggered

Aminata Desert Rose:
Mhmm.

Barb Horn:
To you were you were supposed to mature. You're supposed to be an adult, you know, by 28. What does that mean? Financially, spiritually, maturity, And so you're gonna have triggers, if you will, or Saturn's gonna show you where you still need to man up, if you will. You need still need to do that discipline. What have you forgotten? And it could be in

Aminata Desert Rose:
your financial

Barb Horn:
life up. It could be in your financial life, your relationship life, your emotional life, How you treat yourself. It's all these different vectors depending on your own chart, but you're gonna get those sort of crises.