Christian Kotara shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Good morning Christian, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
One-Hundred percent Energy. I think when we have an understanding of the Universe around us and all that it encapsulates, its all energy when you think long & hard about it. On a personal and more relatable note, I personally & professionally believe that a person’s energy, including my own, can sway the outcome of any situation, the reaction in any interaction or change the greatest of circumstances. Its important to be aligned with your own energy and what it is telling you about yourself, a situation or thing in your life.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am Christian Kotara, I am a Tarot Reader, a Bone Diviner, an herbalist/rootworker & I own and operate a small herbal medicinal and spiritual goods business, coined from my favorite film Practical Magic, named Verbena Botanicals Apothecary. I specialize in intuitive readings, Herbalism & spiritual work. I have been reading and practicing for the better part of 16 years this annual and have mentored & learned under the author & owner of the store and book of the same name “Old Style Conjure” Starr Casas & her family. I have been blessed to be spiritually connected to this family for over the 16 years & to be brought up in the ways I’ve learned, adapted and grown in for over half my life.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
I think disrespect and un-aligned energy can be the biggest contingent towards the breakage of bonds. Majority of the time, the disrespect comes out of two places; misalignment & over-comfortability. When a person is out of balance with their own energy and not in harmony within themselves, this leads to other negative energies we can take into ourselves. Oftentimes, those out of balance will seek out those who they are most comfortable with and have the strongest bonds with; family, friends, loved ones. This can oftentimes break the bond depending on the severity of the disrespect that comes out of someone being too comfortable with being out of alignment with themselves. The way we repair this bond is through understanding, openness to self-realizations & collaboratively energy to reform the bond. A television show I enjoy “Salem” points out a hard metaphor that I enjoy for its underlying message. “Trust is so easily broken, and so impossible to rebuild.” It takes two people to destroy a bond & it takes two people to reform a bond.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
That oftentimes, struggling, like surviving, is a test. I have always been an avid believer in a Higher Power/Source. In all walks of life, we hear, read and understand spiritual messages about the fortification & strengthening that comes out of struggle and survival. It makes the success that comes eventually, all the more better. In a deck I read with, there’s a card called the Ten of Sticks. In this particular scene, an older woman is caning her way up a steep hill with a large bundle of sticks tied to her back as she picks Schishandra berries from a mountainous bush. It talks about preservation through the journey, through the struggle and the survival we adapt to in order to obtain greater things being spiritual medicine for healing, financial success, or plain stability general.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
I grew up pretty non-conventionally. Being one of the far and few LGBTQIA+ members in my home town, also being in what the spiritual community now calls “the broom closet” as well, its pretty difficult to have or form any kind of facade of who you are, what your values & what you believe in. Folks are already, as an unfortunate part of the world we live in, going to make assumptions, judgements & critical decisions for themselves and their ilk based solely off of your appearance, the way you carry yourself, your clothing, down to the way you tie your shoes. I live a very dual life in the sense that I have a personal & a professional side of myself but more times than not, my personality and what & who I am as a person is the same across the board. I like to tell people “there’s no magical mask I put on where I suddenly become a different person.” That line works in all situations, whether it’s to laugh or lay a line.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. Could you give everything your best, even if no one ever praised you for it?
Absolutely! It’s always that cliché “if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” In my line of work & in my personal circle of beliefs, I am divinely led by my loved ones, my friends, my community, my family & my Ancestors. This type of work, in my personal opinion, is not about the money, the fancy things or the satisfaction of just doing it. It is about aligning yourself with a lifestyle & a belief that there are bigger things in our paths than what is immediately present to us. Praise is immediate, aligned gratification in what you do and what you’ve been given up until now is infinite. We cannot lose what we have already gained in a philosophical sense.
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