We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christian Kotara. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Christian below.
Christian, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Day to day the world can seem like a tough place, but there’s also so much kindness in the world and we think talking about that kindness helps spread it and make the world a nicer, kinder place. Can you share a story of a time when someone did something really kind for you?
There came a time in my career with the counseling through the usage of throwing the bones and reading the cards that I stumbled upon a client I’ve come to love. I was working in the shop and had several appointments pushed back to back during the winter months of this past year(2022) when this particular client had come in for a reading and to purchase some spiritual products from the shop I currently read in. This client didn’t appear to be someone I could metaphorically “crack”. I have an affirmation I tell myself everyday going into each appointment I take with my client. “All I can do in life is try. You are here to help no matter the problem, no matter the circumstances, heal through your readings Christian.” When this client sat down, I ran my disclaimer and my usual schtick for the start of the readings. “What’re we coming in for today?, What seems to be the problem?, What kind of topic are we reading on today?” With clients I always like to have at least a topic I am reading on before I start my process of reading and counseling. I prefer to keep as little information as possible about the client as possible in order to keep myself credible and that each reading is tailored specifically to the client with my own intuition on the topic whether its about love, finances, legal matters, family/marital problems or whatever may cross my table. So this client wanted just a general reading. He informed me, he had also read extensively on his own past, present and future and wanted a second affirmative message on what he had previously experienced and learned through what we call in the community as “Shadow Work.” So I cut the cards, shuffled ‘em all up and scattered out the bones and had him shuffle and cut the cards to his liking and he handed them back. I sat for a second swirling the feeling I was getting from my Empathic abilities, which was a mix of hurt, confusion and exhaustion spinning around this man sitting before me. I had him throw out the bones, and pick his placements and we ran up and through the several decks on my table and began reading. All throughout this reading were several synchronicities between cards and the bones all centering around relationship problems that were deeply affecting his financial well-being for the future. We tackled through each section of the reading as if it were a conversation between him and the Spirits, which after a couple of appointments, we came to realize was his Ancestors coming loud and clear through the cards and bones. This man had previously been told several times throughout his life tears were not something that were shed because of it being a “sign of weakness.” I remember that first reading clear as day and the words I spoke to this man and the secrets we uncovered together and the remorse I felt for this stranger and the pain he felt due to this affliction he was having to carry in his heart. We read for probably an hour or two(far past my usual reading time for clients) because this genuinely interested me how this man had dealt with these problems for so long. Tough guy I called him. After the reading I walked him back to the front and we chatted and shared a hug and a smile and a promise to revisit in several months to see his progress. Much to my inevitable surprise he came back just a smiling and laughing as he hadn’t quite gotten completely through the storm with his partner and his financial distress but still pleased with the progress he was making on a spiritual level working through the shadow that was him and his consciousness. I teach people in several readings we are nothing if not ourselves. We are the embodiment of our worst attributes and our finest sides of ourselves walking through day-to-day life. This client seemed to have a hold on my heart though, I consistently prayed for this man and asked for him to be delivered from his problems because of how much I related to this stranger with the similarities between our personal problems. I began to grow resentful of my choices and my need to help and heal others. I had drudged through each day of my current problems walking through fighting tooth and nail and began to feel lowly of myself due to the problems I was enduring. The shop had previously added a feature to the appointment cards that allows the clients to write a small review or compliment or complaint about the readers within the shop. I consider myself an extremely humble person. Never greater than anyone and never worse. Gifted but never more than the next and always mindful of my outward image and demeanor towards people. I have received several compliments during and after readings with my clients such as “Thank you for your help, this reading brought great clarity.” or “This reading has helped open my heart to problems I have endured throughout my life.” But the difference between past clients and this particular one was no testimonials were written. I was informed this client left a short but very sweet message for the shop and for myself. “I am a better person to myself, to my surroundings and to my people because of this person.” Although short and possibly meaningless to someone not involved, this testimonial holds a lot of empowerment to my personal satisfaction and recognition to myself. This is the nicest things anyone within my line of business has ever done without request or aforementioned kindness.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I am Christian Kotara. I am an intuitive counselor and professional tarot/bone reader based out of Fort Worth. I began my spiritual journey around the age of 10 or 11 under the training through my spiritual family down in the deep rural south of Texas between the midsts of Southern Baptism and radical stigma in the heat! Throughout my life I have been blessed with the foreknowledge of the past, present and future of others lives through the gift of Precognition. Slowly over time I have developed and worked this gift into a homegrown form of counseling through the use of Tarot, Bones and Cartomancy using Playing Cards to better help clients through their own personal trials and tribulations.
I have studied and practiced the art of conjure and divination and the working of herbs and roots through my elder Starr Casas and her amazing family I’ve been blessed to call my own in love.
I continue to push through life with an intuitive mind forward throughly to better my own life as well as others through performing cleansings, love work, road opening, herbal healing and much more! I venerate my Ancestors through the use of my herbs grown at home in my own garden and through my own concoction of eclectic witchcraft.
I am able to communicate with Spirits through divination, see auras, and have the gift of Psychic Empathy all pieced together to truly invest into my clients and help the best way I know how.
I also have a small but successful herbal manufacturing business I am pleased to call Verbena Botanicals.
Verbena Botanicals is a small herbal apothecary and spiritual supplies shop that has exponentially grown over the course of this past year. I provide a vast array of herbal medicinal goods as well as oils, tinctures, balms, salves, teas, incenses and much much more. I always say you can take the boy to the city out of the country but something about the country sticks in a weird way. I have faced several setbacks, trials, tribulations and epiphanies throughout my journey with this business. It wasn’t until February of 2022 that I made the decision under careful counseling from my elders to start this business. Previously this was all something I did out of my home wherever I was at. Conducting readings and healing the sick through herbs and spiritual energies was always my passion in life so to me it wasn’t about money or credit or affirmation. Simply knowing I helped or healed a person was all I needed whether it was gifting someone a tea for their persistent cough or healing their flu or performing energy cleanses on folks was my drive in life. One thing that never got me excited was what was in someones wallet. If I had someone who needed healing and I could help that was payment enough for me. Granted I had several offers for payments for readings and goods I never took it. It is always said a person’s gotta make a living. My elders taught me this. Why would my efforts to make a living not help another person? It was this strange saying that put business for hire in my mind. By helping more people I gained a lot of responsibility and obligation to my community and began working on this business for several months. It was an absolute success. Being gifted with Empathy and Precognition doesn’t come without its vices and hardships. Taking on a clients pains and heartbreaks is a consistent process I personally have to work through staying cleansed, cleared and protected daily. Granted I have a strange array of clients who seem to not need the help, I still help the best way I know how. This is my biggest and only pride. It gives me something to look forward to everyday.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
My kindness. Hands down I attribute my success with my reputation to my kindness. I have witnessed throughout my business journey several hard-hearted folks who look at our gifts as a burden to their lives. I believe everyone has free will and has a conscious soul that points us in one direction or the other. I myself was taught not only by my blood family but by my spiritual family that we are nothing if not our words and our attitude. You never know what someone is going through and you are never unkind to others because you don’t know. Even after realizing this through my own Empathy even further, my heart won’t allow me to be ugly to folks despite their tribulations. My heart is big and my kindness is ever flowing to the people who I service with enjoyment.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
I am a firm believer in open communication with folks. I keep several forms of communication platforms between myself and my clients. I see a very well-rounded community of clients ranging from young to old, poor to rich but each client has the same options. I have an email for clients, phone number, facebook, or I tell them what events they can find me at if any further help or questions are needed. It brings me joy to see my past clients come up just to sit and talk with me about the processes they are going through so I keep that line of communication open to anyone, day or night.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.facebook.com/VerbenaBotanicalsApothecary
- Instagram: verbena_b0tanicals
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VerbenaBotanicalsApothecary
- Twitter: SacredVerbena