Embracing Your Full Self with Christian Bradley West, The Country Clairvoyant
Podcast
Episode:
Embracing Your Full Self with Christian Bradley West, The Country Clairvoyant
by Danielle Searancke
I am so excited to share Christian Bradley West, The Country Clairvoyant, with you today! I have been a long-time follower and fan of their memes. However, after having a “Clear Expressive Blocks” session, I knew I had to have them on Spirit School!
In this episode, we talk about embracing your authentic self and different forms of expression. Christian is an artist and writer in addition to being an intuitive. Tactile art mediums like textiles, photography, and sculpture have influenced their work. Memes are a way of incorporating poetry and art to remix existing content.
“When we gain the words of description, we also gain access to expression.” - Christian Bradley West
CONNECT WITH CHRISTIAN BRADLEY WEST:
Instagram: @thecountryclairvoyant
Website: https://www.thecountryclairvoyant.com/
Book a session: https://www.thecountryclairvoyant.com/book-online
Episode:
Embracing Your Full Self with Christian Bradley West, The Country Clairvoyant
Spirit School Podcast
SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE INCLUDE:
Grief is a form of longing for something, whether it’s a person or a potential future.
Christian shares that the term non-binary fit and being trans is part of that identity.
We are emotive beings, yet we learn to suppress instead of explore our emotions.
Communication is key to relationships, so just vibing doesn’t work.
As intuitives, sometimes the trickiest part of connecting is expressing through emotion and thought.
Emotional intelligence was not talked about, so there are layers of deconditioning to go through.
A lot of spiritual labour goes into creating original content.
Christian speaks to the high tide raising all boats and supporting one another.
There is violence behind stealing from others without acknowledgment.
Christian offers relationship readings and feels that we can make them more conscious.
LINKS
Join us on the new FREE Spirit School platform: https://myspiritschoolcollective.com/plans/
Join the Spirit School Collective: https://www.squamishmedium.com/spiritschoolcollective
Enjoy the Show?
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Welcoming Christian Bradley West, the Country Clairvoyant to Spirit School
Danielle Searancke: Hello everyone. And welcome back to Spirit School. I am so excited to be bringing you an interview with somebody who I have been following for years on Instagram, who I think has probably the best celebrity name I have ever heard in my life. I'm gonna invite Christian Bradley West onto Spirit School. How are you?
Christian Bradley West: I'm doing good. Thank you for that. Yeah, we can thank my mom for that. It's one of the things she did right.
DS: Of course you're better known on Instagram as The Country Clairvoyant. You are one of my biggest meme inspirations and meme dealers. After getting to experience a session with you and get to know you better, I just had to share you with the Spirit School audience, because I just think you have so much to offer the world. So, I'm excited to have you here. How are you doing today?
CBW: Good. Yeah, like we said, I'm human. I'm in my body. So, today I feel strange, but not in a bad way, you know? I'm like everyone. I gotta sort through some things. I'm gonna go to the gym later, one of my ways I meditate, you know. It's rainy here. It hasn't been this way in months. So, you know, things are well. And as I like to say, when people ask me that, ultimately I'm maintaining. I'm maintaining. Yeah. Yeah.
The Country Clairvoyant and Current Astrology
DS: I know. You're really, really into astrology. And even when I had my session with you, which was a clearing expression block, I was blown away by your depth of astrology that you knew too. I know I hear a lot of astrology saying, look like, I don't know anyone who's like thriving right now. Have you seen that more or less in the past like year?
CBW: Yeah, I think there's a lot going on. There's a lot of fear. I think there's a lot of shame. There's a lot of grief. I think grief really is something that we don't pay attention to, especially in the Western world. It's pervasive. It's everywhere, but we, we are not really talking about it. And really, there's great new research out that grief is like a form of longing, right? So, whether we're longing for times gone, whether we're longing for a thing we feel like we missed out on, whether we're longing for a future that is inclusive and loving and kind for all of humanity, whatever. I think people feel like right now they really are lacking something.
End of Life Doula Training and Grief
DS: I can feel that. I went through end-of-life doula studies a couple years ago because I'd never experienced grief myself. And of course, as a medium, I'm working with people grieving all the time. So, I took this education as a way to try to educate myself on grief and the science behind it and try to learn about it but when I first experienced grief in 2020, there's nothing that can prepare you for it. No books. No vicariously living through somebody's experience. And I had an epiphany the other day that sometimes I could be really hard on myself as a Virgo. I'm like, you know, always I could do better, should have been better. And I was able to actually experience what I felt in that moment. It was actually grief. I was like, wow, this is grief.
CBW: Exactly. This is grief coming up. The shoulding on ourselves. I should be this way. I should have this by now. I think a lot of people are feeling like, oh, well it should have been this way, and it wasn't. You know, sometimes even with our parents and like, if we didn't get the caregivers we wanted. As adults, we're like, I should have gotten that. Oftentimes we'll seek it out in our partners, right, things like that.
Fear, Shame, and Grief
CBW: So, fear, shame and grief. I narrow the quote unquote, negative emotions, whatever you wanna call it, to these three things, cuz I find everything else comes from them. The fear and some form of lack, right? Fear is this perceived lack of safety. Shame, perceived lack of value. And grief of this perceived lack of whatever, something that we want or that we think we need. So, yeah, I think grief is highly pervasive right now within the collective and something that, if we can learn to work with, we can transmute it, obviously, because it's just part of this human experience.
DS: Yeah, absolutely. I love that. And I was so drawn to your Clearing Expressive Blocks session because I talk for a living. I'm a podcaster. I do readings. I teach. And something that came up for me has cleared since our session. We just had our session last week, by the way. Yay. I was like, I need you on my podcast. And it just so happened this worked out perfectly. Ever since I've named it, I don't experience it anymore.
Having the Vocabulary to Express Ourselves
CBW: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And sometimes we will still experience it, but we can see it for what it is and make the choice to not allow it to impact us at that point. I think this is a good, you know, mini segue. I think having the vocabulary to be able to express ourselves. Like for me, I was born thinking I was a girl, or feeling like I was girl. Not just thinking, but feeling like there was something off between my body and how I felt.
CBW: And later on in life, I decided I was non-binary and that became such a powerful experience. So I went to things like, I think I'm trans, which I would say yes. I still had to consciously choose for whatever reason to be in this male body. And I'm happy with it. I don't wanna change it. I enjoy it. But I also had to acknowledge this other part of me, when I got that vocabulary, going, oh, non-binary like, that's the thing. Like, oh my God. I felt more comfortable. Even being able to say, okay, there's something trans about me, which I like, because I think of transcendent, right. I think of transmutation. I think of transformation, as the root of that word really implies. So, I was like, oh, I have to acknowledge this piece. The vocabulary helps us in the acknowledgement of it. And I think one thing that I'm here to do is to provide a vocabulary for people who maybe can't say it, or maybe aren't aware of it, you know, I don't know why. I like words. But even in my experience having, for lack of a better term, the right word, the word that fits, the thing to go, oh, that's what that is, to describe the emotion, to describe the experience, opens up doors in us.
We’re Not Taught to Look at our Emotions
DS: Yeah, I agree. And it took me about one hot minute of being in therapy to realize I was really lacking in language on how I felt.
CBW: Well, because we're not taught to look at our emotions. We're not taught to explore. It fascinates me that we are extremely emotive creatures, and beings, and yet, and yet we learn to suppress that. We learn to push it away. We learned don't explore it. The vocabulary comes in the curiosity, through therapy, right, or whatever. Through a reading even, through our own reading, through books and research. And when we gain the words of description, we also gain access to expression.
DS: Mm that's really powerful. Absolutely. You know, the way that my mediumship really works is through emotions. Like I'm a clairsentient medium. And so, spirit likes to communicate through me how they felt about the person in this life, and that's not always great. That's not always rainbows and butterflies either. Right.
CBW: Goodness no.
Responsibilities and Language Use for Lightworkers
DS: And then also like the personalities and like the isms and the mannerisms, and so, I understand that part of my responsibility of a light worker is finding that language and is educating myself on, all the varying degrees and spectrums of sadness, of confusion, of love. And there's just, there's so much power behind the words that we pick and choose, and the work that we do.
DS: So, I actually started including in many of my workbooks, cause I teach a lot about mediumship, like 50 or more emotional descriptions, so that people can start building their vocabulary around it as much as like, I felt like I needed to as well. Right.
Christian’s Your Word Is Your Wand Class
CBW: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, one of the classes I teach is your word is your wand. And if we can look at our words, look at the voices in our head even. You and I discussed this. Pay attention to the voices. So again, how are we using language? How are we using it to support ourselves or work against ourselves? And it's funny. I get really frustrated in the spiritual community. They're like just vibe. Just, just vibe. Just, just, all you gotta do is just vibe. I was like, listen, if just vibing worked, we would be in a utopia now. I was like, and what type of vibes are you harboring that maybe are unconscious, that you are trying to suppress in your just vibing? Or positive vibes only, or all those things. Like we cannot weaponize the vibes against the negativity, right? We've got to from my perspective, use our language. We have the most complex, not just that, not one language, but multiple languages, of any other being that we are aware of thus far, right? And that's beyond just micro expressions, beyond movement. Of course, dogs can tell things through movement. I think dolphins and a lot of other animals can too, crows, whatever, you know, recognize movements. And granted, yes, there are creatures, like crows and whatever, that have a language system between each other, but it's very primitive. So for us, we have something that's remarkably complex, that's been developed over, who knows how long we've been here. So, why not use it?
Moving to a State of Being More Articulate as Lightworkers
CBW: So, when people say, oh, you can just vibe, or we're moving to a state where we're moving away from language, I'm like F that, you know. I'm like, no, we're moving to a state where we can become more articulate. And here's the thing, communication is of course the key to all successful relationships. And so, if just vibing worked, then we'd be able to just vibe with the person. But we can't. You know, it frustrates me too. I had a friend that did a survey on his stories about, should you tell the person how you feel or should they just get it? And most of the people said they should just get it. I'm like, no, that's not how this works. I don't wanna read your mind, even though I probably can. Actually, partners would say that I could, but the point is that's sometimes too much work. Tell me what you need. Tell me what you want. I can read you. Even in bed with partners, I was like, you gotta, yeah, I can read your physical expression. I can read all that stuff, but I want more. I want you to say it, use your words.
Language is Valuable and Powerful in Mediumship
CBW: When I taught school and I taught autistic kids, one of the things we would say to them all the time is use your words, the ones that were verbal, use your words, express it. Tell me what you want. Tell me why you're frustrated. Tell me what's going on. You didn't use the word trigger, but basically, that was it. Why are you triggered? What's going on, in the most extreme cases. I mean, you're talking to a writer, so I'm gonna, of course, state my reasoning behind this, and be an advocate for language. But language is such value, even like you said, in the mediumship, but it's paired with the emotions.
Choosing the Right Language in Mediumship Readings
CBW: So, again, my work like with you in the class, we talk about emotions. Sometimes you can't think your way through things. We've got to go beyond the language sometimes and go deeper into the visceral experience of that emotion before we can find the word for it. We've gotta feel it before we can say it. At least that's the way I am. And in sessions, like you, I feel it before I can say it. And I even pause many times because I learned over the years that my vocabulary does not always sync up with my client's. So, oftentimes in sessions, I will have to pause before I wanna say something that's coming through very strongly and say, what word does this person need? How do they need this described to them? And sometimes it takes two to three tries. I'll say it one way. They won't get it. I'll say it another way, and they're like, oh, that really resonates, but I said it 10 minutes ago, a different way. You know? But the way I said it the next time is how it resonates.
Connecting Language with Emotions for Intuitives and Lightworkers
CBW: So, sometimes you have to work through those layers. So I think within ourselves, because we're all intuitive, one of the main points of this is to get in touch with how we feel, why we feel that way, and are we blocked by certain trauma? As you know, insecurity, things like that. And then once we clarify the waters through this process, through the descriptions. Through, I have the words. So it is interesting we went in that direction because words are just so vital. But oftentimes too, if they're disconnected from the emotion, they just become a thought. Because we can't think our way through everything. We can't even communicate our way through everything. Sometimes we have to feel our way through everything.
Feeling Emotions Before Using Language to Describe Them
CBW: So yesterday I was with a friend and we went and saw Marcel the Shell. I would recommend going to see it. It's adorable. It's beautiful. It's funny and poignant, but he just was crying the whole time. And he was like, I don't know if this is the movie. He's like, it's not just the movie. He just had to emote. He just had to emote. And, I didn't ask him how he was feeling. Well, I did once and he said everything, and so I just left it. I was like, okay, I'm just gonna let you feel. Just gonna let you feel because the words will eventually come.
The Importance of Building Language and Emotional Intelligence for Lightworkers
DS: Yeah. And I think us, in this generation too, I appreciate you speaking so graciously about all of that, because it's so important. It's the hardest thing to teach other intuitives. It's like, yes, there's the gift of connecting and the ability that you develop to connect, but saying what they are expressing through you, through emotion and through thought, is like the trickiest part. Just start talking. And it kinda take some time to start building your language around it as well, because truthfully, our parents didn't talk about emotional intelligence, right. It's like, oh, put your head down, get to work. Like capitalism is at work here.
Mind Dominated Experiences vs. Emotional Experiences
CBW: Exactly. You need to make the money, take care of the kids and the family. You know, it goes back to the conditioning. I've done everything I was told I was supposed to do. And then of course, somewhere in life, usually around the midlife crisis, usually, maybe around the late thirties, we start to realize that all these things are unfulfilling, why they're unfulfilling, because they've all been mind dominated. They've all been, okay, let's forget how you feel about this. You were just supposed to push through. And then we usually have a mess on our hands at that point, right, because we've built up this thing that needs deconstruction, which requires self-reflection, which requires looking at the emotions, looking at the thoughts and the conditioning that went into the creation of it. And then, how are you gonna go from there?
Being Able to Articulate Personal Layers
CBW: I mean, even me, somebody who went in a different direction, who didn't get married, who didn't have kids, did all that, still had to look at that in my late thirties. In that period of time, that's when I discovered being non-binary and things like that. And so, again, through my thirties, a lot of layers, being able to articulate layers that I couldn't in my twenties. People who know me know this, I was very intuitive in my twenties. I managed to get around a lot of red flags and not get hit and things like that. I had one really kind of big hit in my mid twenties with a relationship that really took me out for a minute, but very briefly. All of it was very intuitive, how I went about things, my choices, everything. And in my thirties, I had to understand the structure, which goes back to that language. And that's when I started to write, really, I was already writing. I have journals filled with things and I had poetry and all that.
Finding the Balance Between Intellect and Intuition
CBW: But in my thirties, I was like, I really wanna be a writer now, like that's really what's calling. I wanna use my words. I wanna articulate. And I had to really deconstruct my twenties and understand why I was making those choices. And it was all intuitive. But I didn't understand. And then in my thirties I made the same mistakes by the way, but that go round, I wasn't as intuitive. I was more intellectual about it. So, I had to find the balance between the intuition and intellect in my thirties, which is where I came up with the phrase, you can't think your way through everything. You really can't. And I learned that because I would try and intellectualize how I felt.
Astrology and Intellectualizing Emotions
CBW: And again, this friend yesterday, he's a Gemini moon, Venus, and his moon's conjunct his ascended, by the way, for those that know astrology. Gemini's the thinker by the way. Okay. Gemini rules the thoughts and communication. And so he'd spend his whole life intellectualizing his emotions, which by the way, my Gemini moons out there, you might do. Aquarius moons as well. Any air moon really. Libras not as bad as the other two, but my point being is that it's even in his chart and he can't do it anymore. He can't. So he's 39. Like again, in the thirties, I can't intellectualize my emotions. I have to feel them first.
Art and Intuition
DS: Yeah. Well, and I'm wondering too, I really wanted to go back a little bit with you. Cause there's two things that really stuck out for me on your website. So, there's two areas I wanna go and I'm gonna let you choose which one you wanna go down. I'm hearing a lot of like this growing into your expression and then just wanting to highlight the fact that you are an incredibly acclaimed artist. And when I see your art I'm like, OK, this guy does painting. He does sculptures. He creates textiles. Like just mind blowing art that you do. And I'm wondering if that had a piece in your finding your expression as well, if that would be very emotional. And your photography, I have shivers right now, just thinking about some of the pictures that I saw. And so like, how is that important? And then I also wanna go back to, you have over 20 years experience in this field, so you must have been really young going into your craft as well. So those are two things I really wanted to pick your brain about too.
Christian’s Art Practice, and Grace as Infinite Second Chances
CBW: Well, we'll start with the second one and it'll lead us into the art. So yes, the art helped me a lot. Again, intuition, very visual. It fascinates me. In my early twenties doing my photography, people saw what I was doing before I saw it. So, I had a lot of things in people's mouths, like pine cones, in actual ribbons, like I wanted to shove shit in people's mouth, be like dead birds, which I did not ask him to do. It's called, I know how to revive birds because that's what he said. He was one of my students and we found dead bird and, you know, I became friends with him. They lived down the street for me. And he said, I know how to revive birds. So he is literally bringing breath into it, which the bird to me always kind of felt like a fall from grace or fall from innocence or something like that. And so reviving the bird brings something back to life. The word grace is something I'm starting to talk a lot more about. My definition of it, which I define for those that wanna know, infinite second chances. So we get to revive the bird whenever we want, we get to reconnect, we get to do all those.
Struggling with Communication
CBW: So someone said about my art, it's like, you're trying to say something, but you're struggling because all your pictures, even though I was saying it in a very poetic fashion, it was about struggling with communication. And it was true. It was true. I really struggled with communicating who I was and what I wanted, because it was through trauma. I mean, I was slapped a lot when I would talk. And I was too big, too much, always. Even with the men I've dated, you're too much. I've heard that a lot, which I say F you to at this point. I was like, no, I'm not too much. I'm me. Right? Like I've had to work through that.
Growing Up Intuitive
CBW: But going back, exploring all the pieces. So, according to like my mom and other people, I just had this innate ability for art, but also an intuition about things. I just always knew things. Sometimes to the point of where I would get slapped, because I didn't know I wasn't supposed to talk about certain things, you know? We keep that under the rug, like don't expose that, things like that. So I'm really big about being honest, as much as possible. So as a kid, though, that gets you in trouble because you, you don't have a filter. So the intuition was always there, and then I was blessed with one of my mom's best friends, who worked in a metaphysical shop. In my late teens, really, I started to come into this because I got sick. And so I connected with like herbs and things like that through a lot of gut stuff, that led me to shops that had psychics too, and essential oils.
Aromatherapy, Spirituality, Christianity
CBW: So, I started looking into all that, and studying all of that stuff. So very young, I knew how to use essential oils. I mean, when I was 16, I was basically probably an aromatherapist at that point. I knew all the oils and this was back before the multi-level marketing stuff. I mean, this was around 1995. You know, 95, 96. That kind of, again, opened doors. So, I had these things and before then I was drawn to spirituality, but I chose Christianity at the time, because I deeply wanted this connection with something that I felt was really more immersive, not even connection, just being a part of, you know, which you could call connected because we live in the perceived duality. But, you know, I really felt drawn to that.
Concepts of Hell
CBW: That started to fall apart when being gay showed up, and of course non-binary, going like, oh, well I'm considered an abomination. I was like, that doesn't feel right. I mean, hell never felt right to me. Every time they talk about it, I was like, there's no, hell. I was like, we live in hell, like we create hell. I knew that at a very young age. And then as I started to read and expand and learn about spirituality, or different new facets of it, and learn cards and things, I was, and I was always connected to fairies, you know, nature spirits, that thing was always big for me. And luckily I had a couple people that saw it. Not my parents, people outside the family, that really supported me in that. My mom saw it. I think she did what she could do, if that makes sense. She struggled with her own traumas and own things as many of our parents do.
Christian’s Artistic Gifts at an Early Age
CBW: I think that that led to the art too. The art really came because I could, I wasn't allowed to sing. My music teacher saw some raw talent, but that never happened. I also had visual talent. So in composition and whatever, I remember my fourth grade art teacher really pointing out at what I could do. And I didn't know what I was doing. I was just throwing shit on paper, which says to me, we don't come here as blank slates. We come here, whether it's genetic, past lives, all that stuff. And if you ever taught young kids or had children, you know they just have a personality from out the gate. I mean, they just do, and we can cultivate it or not.
Developing Intuition and Oracle Cards
CBW: So the intuition thing started to develop. By the time I was 18, I got my first deck, which was Brian Froud's Fairy Oracle. For those who know Brian Froud, he did the Dark Crystal and Labyrinth art with Jim Henson, but he was known like for fairies, he connects with fairies, all those things.
CBW: So I was obsessed with his art. Again, a friend gave me his book when I was 14, that came out in 78, the year I was born. And so it was like an interesting little thing that that came out at the same time I did, I popped out on the scene. And so it was just a thing. And that book also had Alan Lee in it who did what we see on Lord of the rings. Alan Lee did a lot of her work for that. He had illustrated the Hobbit and the Lord of the rings books and things. They collaborated on that. So two of my really artists that just resonated with me. And so I followed the art because I could go into my room and make art and that was quiet and people liked it. They'd rather see me not hear me. So I threw that out there. So gave up on the singing, gave up on the music, gave up on that and decided to go in that direction. I became obsessed with photography, and I noticed that when I did photography, I was present.
Eckhard Tolle’s The Power of Now and Making Art
CBW: I ended up reading Eckhart Tolle. That book came out in 97 and I was really ramping up on my photography. And I was like, oh, I'm doing what he says when I make art. All the things he talks about. I was like, there's no pain body here. There's no second guessing. There's no questioning. There's no thoughts getting in the way of me making what I want. I could just move into it.
CBW: And that's what I do in sessions. I have to move into that space, my intuition. I have to drop all the judgements. I was struggling with one client a while back, who's a very consistent client. So, for those that don't know, if you read someone more consistently, sometimes people say it gets harder. I haven't found that to be the case because I didn't want that to be the case. When I was younger, I was like, I don't wanna be that person. So, but what I learned I had to do is drop all judgment. Drop all, anything that could block the information from coming through.
Dropping All Judgement and Stepping Into Pure Expression
CBW: And that's what I do with my creativity. I do it in my writing now, too. So it taught me how to do that, how to completely step outside of the little me, so to speak the ego, me the whatever, and go into a space of just pure expression. And allow whatever to come through, to come through. And then when I started designing, I did a lot of research trending, but I was good at that too, with intuition. I just could know things. My dad told me when I was younger, if I wanted something, a color or a style, which he never knew where I figured out the style. He shopped at Brook Brothers or whatever. He'd be like, you know, you want whatever comes into style about two years ahead of time.
CBW: So he pointed that out and I remember we were at the dinner table one day and he said that to me. Because my parents were always like, you want that? Like corduroy, I wanted like a leather jacket, whatever. Like I wanted this thing and they'd be like, where is this coming from? And I was like, I don't know, I just want this thing.
DS: I'm at the other end. I'm usually two years behind trends.
CBW: And that's OK. When it comes to technology, I'm not an early adopter. I want the bugs worked out. I was not an iPhone early adopter, but you know, I came around a couple years later obviously, but I like to be aware of those things.
The Magic of Photography and Appreciating Analogue Processes
CBW: So yeah, they worked in tandem and I'll tell you through the art career. Yeah, I looked at my photography. I looked at drawing and what I ended up doing was drawing from found photos for those, so I was still influenced by the photography aspect of it. I wanted to connect with that. I don't know. Photography, for those that have done it, is just magic. I mean, when you've worked in a dark room, not the digital age. I mean, there's something about the antique processes, which I worked in, like the tintypes, and ambrotypes, and emulsions, and things like that. I like to touch things. I'm an earth sign. I like to feel things. I still love to read the books. I can't read a book on a pad. I can't do it, even like reading long articles, as much as I want to. I don't always get to it because even though I'm holding the phone, there's something about wanting to hold the thing. So, sometimes I'll print them out.
Graphic Artwork vs. Sculptural Artwork
CBW: When it came to my art, even though I've done graphics work and graphic design, you know, it is false flat sometimes. So even in the textiles and we'll design it in the computer, but I got something physical from it, which I loved, which felt very similar to the photography. It was kind of in the ether. It was kind of on this film. And then I would take this thing and through light, the light would shine down and it would create this image on this piece of paper that then I could hold or this, this piece of aluminum or whatever. Putting on the aluminum, things like that, it became sculptural even.
CBW: And so the carpet was the same. I would draw out the textile and then we'd pick out the yarns and the colors, and then it'd get tufted, and then you'd have this very physical thing. And sometimes I miss it. I mean, I really do. And even in my work, in my process, I give people, very physical things to do in sessions. It's different for everyone, but I want to ground it in a practice. The art was not something I just learned. I was self taught. I didn't go school for it, but I had to learn it. And even my degree, which is in science, because I'm a scientist too, I had to learn to be in my body. And my degree, for those who know, was exercise science. There's a lot of physiology. Also, there was a lot of psychology that we went into that I use now, because we talked a lot about health and emotions. And at the time we called it behavior modification.
Explore All the Pieces that Make You You
CBW: So a lot of those things, I work with my clients. Okay, what behaviors are essentially in preventing you from getting where you wanna go and you experienced this firsthand, you know? And so it's funny how it just all melded together. Because of my art, I could design a beautiful website. Because of my words, I could make memes and pick the pictures and like find the things, because the memes to me are kinda like poetry. They can say big thing in a very small space.
CBW: So, my recommendation for people that are listening, I say all this, because explore all your pieces. And that's really what I did. I didn't leave a stone unturned. I was like, okay, I wanna understand this. I wanna look at this. I wanna read about this. I did not allow anything or anyone to stand in the way of me exploring, internally and externally. Even within myself, going back to the emotions. When I feel the fear, I'm like, what is this about? Why am I resisting? Why am I doing this? And so, yeah, it's all this big soup of. Christian Bradley West. I had to look at each ingredient, you know.
Relating to Human Struggles as a Lightworker
CBW: And then years ago, when I first started doing the intuitive work professionally, which has helped me a lot because now I have a pool of people to, kind of a cross section, the scientist part of me to look at and see, well, how are these humans humaning? What are the dysfunctions? What are they running up against? I get more relationship sessions than any other one. Astrology's the next one. And then the clear expressive blocks. It's interesting to me because it's like, oh, these humans are functioning in this capacity. This is what they're struggling with. I was like, oh, it's in me too.
Using Personal Examples in Teaching
CBW: So a lot of times, to your point, I use a lot of examples for my life, which I was really self conscious of in the beginning, but it's even come out in my writing. I realized, show your work. That's my philosophy. Show your work. And when I was in art, by the way, I got my mentors at the time, all of them told me to not show my work. Don't be messy. Don't let people see the messy process. None of that. And again, another thing I say F that to, because my thought is, no. I started noticing the millennials, especially with the advent of Instagram, wanted to see the work. They wanted to see how the art is created.
On the Process of Becoming Enlightened
CBW: They wanted to see the process. And in spiritual community is big too because we make the assumption that Buddha and Christ and all these other spiritual teachers, just one day woke up and boom, they were in light, which is just total BS. They were absolutely not. They suffered. Buddha, left his comfort of his home and went and became, you know, an ascetic. Christ was his own ascetic, you know, went into the desert. They fasted. They did these things. They hallucinated, they went through all the things and then eventually something clicked.
CBW: They went through a process. The dark years of Christ in his twenties, we don't know where he was. I think he was studying Buddhism personally, because he sounds like a Zen Buddhist. The teachers came and they were like the Dai Lama or even the next Buddha was born, from my perspective. So, the people showed up to go, Hey, this is where Buddha's gonna be now. We're gonna go there. And this is where the next Buddha is, because I think Christ is just another Buddha. They were in meat suits like we were. They struggled with illness and disease and, you know, even Christ went into the Garden of Gethsemane and said, I don't wanna do this. I don't wanna have to go through this process. Don't make me go through this. But something was calling him to die. He, for whatever reason, had to go through the stuff, because he could have escaped that night and he didn't, you know? And so he knew what his path was, and his destiny, and where it was leading him. They all struggled. So, the humanness of our experience gets bypassed in the spiritual community and I'm here to change that.
Learning About Others’ Lived Experiences
DS: And I think that that's a passion we both share. And I think that that's something that came out in the reading. Like I've been really obsessed with the past couple years, after I got on TikTok and started hearing different people's perspectives on how different world events impact different walks of life and people who come from different lived experiences. And so I decided to sit and listen for two years, and just listen to all these different perspectives. And it took me down a road to become trauma informed. And so I know that we share that passion, like social justice and like this trauma informed lens of showing up and honoring people's humanity, even in the airy fairy world of the spiritual space. Do you have anything that you wanna speak to that as well? And then I wanna go to memes after for a minute. But I wanna know about your passion with this, like honoring people's humanity, even in the spiritual space and all that fun stuff. And I also just wanna say, I agree with you. I think that people, the way that I teach is through my experiences and I call myself an experiential teacher. I find, for adults, they learn best that way.
Readers and Sitters Connecting over Similar Experiences
CBW: Yeah. Well, I think they wanna know they're not alone. I think everyone wants to know they're not alone. I think the validation comes as, you know, even a session I had today, I was like, Hey, I understand where you are. I see it. I connect with it. I've been here. I've made similar choices, because my experience has been very broad. I think on purpose. I think, to answer your question, the humanness of it is very important. In my early twenties, the song, I Hope You Dance came out and you know, it's a very cliche, very whatever, but it's probably one of my favorite songs. And there's a darkness to it though, if you listen to the music as well. You gotta make your choice. So I think at that point I was like, I want to dance. I want to dance. I want to experience. I don't wanna die going on my deathbed being like, I didn't get to do that.
Exposing Your Humanness as a Lightworker
CBW: So, it's involved a lot of risk, but in process, it has exposed my humanness, and the fact that we come here to be here, to experience our emotions, to experience all the things. Now, do we get a choice in it? Are there are a lot of systems and structures in place that are suppressive of our expression? Uh, yes. So what we really came here to do is express ourselves, but for some reason it gets cloaked with the conditioning initially, right? As the way I say it is, this is we're given all these hand me down clothes. We have to put on the clothes, because that's what we're told to do. And then later on in life, or throughout life, we start to shed those clothing, start to shed those beliefs, start to shed those things, which is where most of us who've had the awakening or keep having awakenings, most of us do. I think everyone does. It never stops, as long as we're in this meat suit. Part of the human experience is shedding the skin, shedding those layers, shedding the belief systems, shedding the things, and then going well, this is who I really am.
Recognizing Our Human in Spiritual Development
CBW: And I think all the enlightened teachers, all those people, the ones that really exhibit that, there's no pretension. There's no layer of fear, so to speak, that comes from that conditioning because let's face it, when we're born, we have an amygdala. It's the first thing. The prefrontal cortex isn't. We rely on our parents for perspective as children, because we don't have that perspective. But as we age, we acquire it. So part of the experience is to come to experience the fear initially, to come to experience the lack of safety. The issue is most parents aren't really good at creating the safe environment, cuz we really don't live in safe environments.
CBW: So, one of the lines from Marcel is that he's looking at his social media, the little shell, because a filmmaker's filming him and he goes, peace and love? That girl signed her little note. He's like, of course, peace in love. He's like, what? Am I gonna sign it war? Yes, I come with war. And in minutes, he's tickled me, in his little sarcasm. And I was like, that's exactly how I feel about it. Like, no, we don't want war, but why do we keep doing it? So, violence is definitely part of this experience here. So, if we can recognize that within ourselves, then we can stop it. So recognizing the very human, we might even say the animal part, is the part that wants to survive. Part of the spiritual journey is really recognizing that and going, oh, I'm not gonna let that impact my choices. I'm not gonna let that mask my consciousness because even though I'm afraid, and maybe I can't eat or I'm hungry, whatever, maybe there's something else. For those of us that, especially if we have privilege in some capacity, maybe we can support people that are struggling with some form of physical lack, you know?
Love is Total Inclusion of Everything within Ourselves
CBW: So recognizing our fear, our shame, our grief, recognizing those pieces that some people call the shadow, whatever. I don't necessarily like to call it that. I don't like higher self or any of that. I just prefer to look at people as integrated. Even if they don't think they are. No trauma does fracture us in some capacity, and again, part of our journey is looking at all the pieces. So the human part of us is not denying any piece. That's really love. Love is total inclusion of everything within ourselves, where we don't judge and push away anything. We just go toward that thing that's scary, that's wounded, that's whatever, and we embrace it.
The Spiritual Journey = A Journey of Consciousness
CBW: So to me, really, a spiritual journey is a journey of consciousness. It doesn't have to get woo. Although the woo can be a part of it. The woo continues to be a part of, I don't know how I pick up on things with other humans. I don't know how the magic happens. I don't know how, but it happens and I'm here for it. But my point is this, is that if we don't embrace our humanness, we can't get anywhere. And I'll tell you this, people give Eckhart Tolle a lot of flack because I don't think they really read his work. I don't think they understand it. And that's not bypassing anyone. I think it's true. I think I see a lot of snippets on Instagram where people are criticizing him and I'm like, Did you read the other books? Have you listened to him talking? I was like, yeah. Did you contextualize that within the whole? Just curious. But he says that he talks about the pain body, which is basically trauma. He talks about that. He was doing this, you know, years ago, but what I wanna say is he talks about going into the body.
Eckhart Tolle and Acknowledging the Human Part of Ourselves
CBW: When I first heard him and I was reading him and I was, you know, working out and I was in the gym and really was my meditation, which I mentioned it earlier. So we were coming full circle. He said to me through his work, go into the body. Don't deny the body. The ascetics denied it. People say, oh, sex is bad. All these pieces of the body, your desire for food, the seven deadly sins. Now the seven deadly sins are true. Like, here's the deal. If we overextend anything, like, that's why the Buddhism is the middle way. That's why the stoics, the middle way. Right? We acknowledge the very human part of ourselves without letting those impulses motivate or override our ability to be aware. I had an ex that would say, well, I don't think humans are monogamous. So we're animals, like all that stuff. And I was like, you know what? If I could be a hoe, I probably would be. I'd probably be out there with anyone and everyone, because some part of me, if you follow me, you know I'm very sex positive. And so I'm all about that. Like, go do it if you wanna do it. Go do it. Be conscious of it though. Be aware. Be safe about it, all of those things.
Conscious Choices in Relationships
CBW: But also, my point is, is the fact that I default to monogamy because that's maybe cuz I'm lazy. I don't know. But I like the deep, intimate connection that I get within that space. But I consciously choose that. I constantly go there because I know that I'm whole in and of myself and I don't necessarily need this person to fulfill me, but I can choose a person that I'm very compatible with, that's very healthy, that's worked through their dysfunction and choose to be with that person and be very satisfied with it. There's still an impulse in me to go ho around, but it's not safe right now. It doesn't work. It's something I have to watch. I think a lot of people do, so we all have the impulses. We all have the things. And so it comes to me like my body's like, let's go make babies. My body just says, let's go make babies. Like, let's go eat. Let's go move. So I'm like, oh, my body wants to make babies today. You know? But am I gonna go and try and make a bunch of babies? No. You know? I mean, I go, okay, nice. Thanks for showing up. I love it. Maybe I'll make love with my partner, whatever, but you know, things like that.
Consciousness in Human Impulses
CBW: So, I think we wanna watch all those things, but also not deny it. None of it's bad. I point that, because that seems to be the thing that a lot of people, like, we have the impulse to eat, we have the impulse for all these things, but when it comes to sex, like, oh, that's the one impulse. Nope. Not allowed to have that one. You gotta pee, but you can't wanna orgasm. That's bad. Of course we know if we don't pee and we don't go to the bathroom, we're gonna get sick. Right. It's going disrupt the balance in our system. So about our body wants all the things.
Being Purposeful vs Being Passionate
CBW: So you asked me what I'm passionate about. I don't necessarily love that word, but I'll say I am about being purposeful in all ways. Be on purpose. You are here on purpose. We all are here on purpose, which is to say we are each significant. And so I say, live your life accordingly. So, in that, another way to say it is we're all artists. We're all making choices. We will make as many choices in a day as breaths we take. And we have an opportunity every day to pay attention to those choices. And where is it coming from? Is it coming from survival? Is it coming from fear? Is it coming from lack? And if it is, that's fine.
CBW: But then make it a choice. I'm gonna use this to be manure for, to grow wildflowers in. I'm gonna transform. I'm gonna do all those things. So being human is what we're here to do. So let's do it really well, without the violence.
Spiritual Meme Roundup Monday
DS: I love that. Thank you for that. No, I always knew I needed to do a podcast to you because, you know, the last area I really wanna go as part of this interview, which is where it led me to you and why I really wanted to interview you, is because I think if someone were to like, just look at your Instagram, they wouldn't get like the depth of you necessarily. And I really wanted people, because I know a lot of my audience follows you, because I have Spiritual Meme Round-up Monday, and I've been snagging your memes for years now. I appreciate you sharing them, because for me, with the memes, it shows another side of me, because I could be quite dramatic. And it's like, for me it shows like the lighter side of me, my weird sense of humor. With you, why memes? What is with them with you?
Spiritual Memes and Poetry
CBW: So like, like I said earlier, I think they're poetry, I have a poet in me. I've always written poetry. Always loved it. I remember sixth grade I met a poet, and she came to speak to our sixth grade class, and I was just obsessed. I was like, I just love this. It was something, again, the words. Saying things in a small space that resonate in a big way, I think is really important. And I was inspired to do it years ago, you know, Instagram is meme land. When I researched a lot about building a social media platform or whatever, one of the options was meme account. So for those who don't know, if you look at it, if you've done the research, then, you know, it's celebrity there are artists on Instagram, so you can narrow it down to these categories. And there were the infographic people, right, and I have the occasional infographic. I used to do that in a funny way. What I discovered for me, I was like, I just felt inspired. I was like, I think memes are the direction to go.
Steal Like an Artist
CBW: I had met another friend on Instagram. She had built a really strong following through the spiritual memes and I realized they took just your basic memes and sometimes remixed them in a spiritual fashion. I was like, well I can do that all day. I love remixing things. I'm really good at remixing. There's a great book out there that's called Steal Like an Artist, you know? And now, I like what he says. He says, basically what I said, you look at all your pieces, right? Because in the beginning we learn from the masters. So you learn about how other people are doing and eventually your signature comes through, your voice comes through. And so, you know, I think it took me a while to find my voice. I think I'm as close to it as I'll ever be at the moment with the memes. I just had someone who I met recently, who loves sending memes and he sent me a meme and I was like, that's mine. They took the watermark off. He laughed. He said, you know what, somehow I knew that. And then of course he sent me another one. He's like, is this yours?
The Origins of Saturn Daddy
CBW: It was the rise. Like a multidimensional dumpster fire Phoenix or whatever. I was like that's my words. I was like, oh my God. So it's funny to see the impact of what I decided to do. Even I started talking about Saturn being into BDSM and astrology and call them Saturn daddy, and everyone uses that term now. No one was using that term in the beginning. So, the memes are a way to really get information out there, I think, as much as anything. The downside is, with anything, is they're sound bites, to your point. No, the editor that I just worked with, I was really grateful for because he seemed to see me. He seemed to be able to recognize me and my ability to use language and things. I was delighted. I was like, you see me. Like, oh my God. Like that's delightful.
Spiritual Memes: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime
What I was gonna say to your point. I think the people that see me, see me, you know? So the ones that stick around, stick around. They get it. The ones that don't, that's okay. We're not gonna be for everyone. And sometimes I like everything from the ridiculous to the sublime, or the sacred and profane. And I think memes can walk that line in a lot of ways. I got a great one last night that I was like, oh, falling to sleep. Like I gotta make it. I think again, there's a lot of remixes, but I love like one of my favorite meme trends, because I love wizards and all things was the orb, pondering my orb. And I love that everyone, including myself, had to create their own pondering orb meme or even the Little Miss memes, even though people got tired of it. I was like, I'm gonna make my own. I'm gonna use standard meme format for Little Miss, you know? And like, take shit posts and put 'em in the Little Miss. Little Miss, and then it would have that long, you know, shit post quote, on the whatever image. Again, remix. I wanted to do that.
An Opportunity to be Creative and Present
CBW: So I think it's also an opportunity to be creative, and allow that to present. And then I started doing carousels the year before last and, you know, I'm a curator as well. I've curated shows, exhibits, things like that. So I was like, oh, I'll curate memes too. Although that, by the way, I mean, that has made posting, three hours a day. I haven't been able to post recently, because a lot of other things have been going on, people visiting, book stuff. It's been really hard to find the bandwidth for it because I will spend three hours a day mining memes for y'all.
Creating Fresh Spiritual Content and Free Spiritual Labour
DS: There's so much, I just wanna respond to this because I'm working on a podcast episode right now called Free Spiritual Labor, and you are like, you're up there with one of the three content creators. If you knew what it takes to come up with like fresh, original.
Original Spiritual Content and Supporting Creators
CBW: I wanna be fresh. Yeah. Like, not to do my own horn, but I think we all should celebrate ourselves to some degree. It fascinates me how much of my stuff gets stolen. I mean, and not just taking my watermark off, but my vocabulary. I mean, again, going back to how I express, what I say, how I do things. Now we're all breathing the same air to some degree, so I'm not gonna take all the credit for it. The high tide raises all boats. So I'm happy to be part of the tide, and one of the boats too. But still, it's been interesting to watch all of it. And I have friends, friends that say, here, your quotes. People will literally take quotes out of my captions and then go and do things, and it's frustrating too. In the beginning, it was really frustrating when I was growing, because again, the high tide raises all boats. I had many things go viral and I said, why aren't you supporting me? I was really confused. I was like, why are you putting your watermark on my creation? And people are like, oh, it's just a meme. But I'm like, yeah, but I'm also make a living doing this. Like you could support my creativity. Even my quotes that people say. I'm like, you could say, Hey, that's attributed to Christian Bradley West, you know?
Spiritual Mumbo Jumbo, Mining Instagram Content
CBW: I'm reading a book now that I'm not in love with, but it's, it came out in 2013. Um, I'll you know what you're talking about? Yeah. I think we talked about it. I won't say it because she's a good writer. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's got a lot of spiritual mumbo jumbo in it and I'm like, oh my God, this is all over Instagram. It's like people just took her quotes in her work and have been making memes with them since, you know? I think the work is a little bypass-y which is why I don't like it. A lot of law of attraction and things like that, and now I'm remembering we discussed it already. But to people out there, like it fascinates me. I'm like, oh my God, this is where this came from.
DS: Yeah.
Being Inspired by Content vs Stealing it
CBW: And there were over 2 million copies sold. So, you know, it was very pervasive in the consciousness of the community. She didn't say anything new, by the way. I mean, The Secret, there's a lot of little secret things in it too from that book. My point is this, is that steal like an artist is fine, but my thought is, if you're stealing just for stealing and you're not making your own, that's an issue. So I do my best to try and make things my own, through my own filter, my own voice, my own vision. And I think a lot of people out there on social media just don't have that capacity. It's cause I think you said free spiritual labor. It's because it's hard to do that. It takes time because we live in a process oriented world, you know.
DS: And reflection, it takes that deep reflection.
Consciously Creating Original Content
CBW: That's part of the process. Absolutely. And the intuition I'm like, what am I gonna post? I mean, the post I did today, right before our session, I had for days, because I couldn't get to it yet. Even last night, I wanted to write the caption and I was like, I don't know what to write. I was like, I'm gonna wake up in the morning and I'll know. So I'll just wait. I was like, I'll just sleep on it and I'll do it before I see Danielle. To your point, it's frustrating, but the bigger I get, the easier it gets. And I look at these artist accounts that also make great quotes too, that are writers too, that are, you know, all the things like me. You know, their stuff gets taken all the time. And then that even gets reproduced. Like people in China do it. I have a good friend, well, Shannon Gomez, from Rebel Deck. I mean, her stuff gets taken, stolen, all the time. She really was the first badass, cheeky, cussing kind of deck out there. And now there are ton of people doing it. You know, manufacturers in China are reproducing her thing and selling it on Amazon.
DS: Yeah. I have a lot of artist friends that that's happening to. Like their designs for like greeting cards are now on t-shirts like direct.
The Dark Side of Capitalism and Stealing Content
CBW: Oh my God. Yes, absolutely. I mean, when we talk about capitalism, people think, oh, well, free market. And I'm like okay, fine. We can narrow it down to that. Yes. A thousand different voices. It's a good thing. That part of it's absolutely good, but we're also in the dark side of it, which is I'm gonna steal everything from you just to make a book. And the memes fall in line with that because there's a lot of young people that struggle with, do I put watermark on my memes? I want them to. I say, yes, put your damn watermark on it, because guess what I can do then? If I don't know it comes from you and I see it in another account and there's no watermark, I know at this point, the chances are, it's not because the someone removed it, it's because you didn't ever did it.
Respecting Original Creators Content
CBW: And so, I get frustrated with that, but, you know, as we talked recently, there's a big account out there who literally stole one of my quotes and said it as their own. And that was really frustrating, because I'm like, why didn't you just repost me? You're a writer too, and you have over 200,000, 238,000 followers. I was like, you could have supported me in my work. You could have supported, you know, me as a writer, you could have supported me as I've reposted them. And, you know, I didn't know that was their meme by the way, because again, they did not put a watermark on it at the time. But I tagged them, and I think I put it in my stories and you know, all that. If I don't know and someone messaged me, I will do it, but if there's no watermark, I can't do anything about it. I try and not post things without watermarks, but now it's gotten hard because you don't know if somebody did it or didn't put the watermark on it, you know? And I don't think he did. I think in the beginning he wasn't.
Showing Up in the World as a Creative
CBW: So, I thought it was funny he came after me for not tagging him, but then he completely stole from my quote. And like we talked about, the more creative people I find, and this is nothing against anyone or I'm trying not to be biased, but those of us that grew up, if you're BIPOC, or if you're queer, or any of that, you grew up in the margins, and it gives you a different perspective. And you are forced to be more creative because it's the way that you can show up in the world. Even though I present at this point as a cisgender white male, I haven't always. I was very feminine. I was called names every day of my life as a kid. Every day. Awful names, very nasty humans in life. But it forced me to step outside the norm, because I already existed out of it, but it forced me to consciously go, okay, I gotta look at the world through a different lens. And the suffering brought that on. And I'm not saying everyone can't do that, but suffering definitely helps in creativity, like the funny tweet that says, how did you get so funny? Thinks it's trauma. You know? The privilege does allow for certain things.
Existing in Intersectional Spaces
CBW: So I, again, I exist in an intersectional space. Existing there, and choosing to be there, provides me access to a creative expression that's outside the norm, at least I'm trying for it to be. I'm comfortable here now. I used to be really uncomfortable in the intersectional space. Again, that non-binary space doesn't just apply to my gender. I'm a, non-binary across the board, a lot of ways, you know. I'm not just one thing. But I find that there are a lot of people out there, a lot of the people that are stealing are privileged, and just are like, okay, I'm just gonna take this, and then not be accountable for it. And so that goes back to your free spiritual labor, because a lot of us in the space that are really wanting to push ahead come from an out of the box background.
DS: Yeah, I agree. And it makes you wonder before the online space, how prevalent that was in real life.
CBW: Oh, I think absolutely.
DS: It always has been.
Stealing Culture, Stealing Land
CBW: Absolutely. Humans have not moved off the mark. Humans are just as violent as they were 500 years ago. And privilege colonialism. I'm gonna steal this from you, whether it's your land or your culture. My ancestry Scottish, and, you know, my family came here to the Highland clearances. Well, what happened in the 18th century? The Highland clearances took place in the 17th century. So all my people were cleared off their lands and then they went to Ireland or came to the states. There was this resurgence in the 1800s, people don't know this, of Scottish culture in Britain. And that's where the kilts we see today come from, by the way, because two brothers decided that this is what the kilts look like. So they created this whole lore, so to speak, around the Scottish heritage, that wasn't really true, but for about 30 years it was trendy because, of course, the trends lasted longer then because they weren't as pervasive as they are now, the connectivity wasn't there, like it is through social media. So a meme trend back then would probably last 30 years yeah, versus 30 minutes or 30 days for us, not even that long. So being Scottish, basically doing all the things that were Scottish, became really big in Britain at one point in time in the 1800s, and they stole all the customs, and the heritage, and all the things from that, after clearing them off their land.
DS: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, sound familiar? Rock and kill.
Examples of Appropriation
CBW: Does it sound familiar today people? Yeah. Humans and of course it was happening with the Native Americans at that time too. It's still happening. It's still happening. People are still gonna take and not be accountable for it. And it's happening in this space. It's happening on a micro level right now, but it's still happening. Hey, you have something I want. I'm gonna manipulate it, market it. Not even manipulate it potentially, but I'm gonna appropriate it. I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna use it. So when people get upset with me about, oh, it's just a meme. No, it's not just a meme. It's the behavior behind the taking of it behind the removal of the watermark behind the fact that this person did not think enough of me to tag me when they posted it.
DS: Yeah. There's some like, some mal-intent almost.
CBW: I think so. Right. I think so. I mean, I can't tell you how many people have removed my watermark and put somebody else's. No, it sounds petty, but at the same point in time, I'm like, we're all in the tide, we're all the boats. We are the tide.
DS: But it's not even about being petty. It's the fact that this is the way history has always been. It's people from a point of privilege.
Insincere Apologies in Creative Spaces
CBW: Exactly. And so it's a microaggression, back to violence, about taking something from someone and we don't consider it violent, but I do, and I talk about it in my work all the time. It's violence to steal from other people. And when they say, Hey, that hurt me, to look at them and go, oh, well, I'm really sorry. And this happened to me with that quote by the way. Oh, I'm really sorry, but can I just keep it anyway? Can I just keep doing it? Can I just not acknowledge your influence? Can I just not support you? I want to be the one that spearheads this and we see it all the time. We even see it in the Kardashians. They got into crystals and different things and you know, all of a sudden that's changed things too. Sadly though, a lot of it becomes superficial in the appropriation because it forgets where it comes from.
Taking Accountability
CBW: Listen, I'm not above this. I've accidentally made some things that people have come after me for. And now most of these people don't know me or where I come from or my heritage, so they don't question it. They're just like, oh, you're a white guy. But setting all of that aside, of my own experience, I've looked at it and said, you know what, I'm just gonna let it go. But the Internet's forever. So people keep put, tagging me in things that I deleted years ago. You know, I'm willing to look at things. I'm willing to go, is this appropriation? Did I take this? Is this an issue? And let's have a discussion about it, you know? There have been many hateful people, which frustrates me, because why be hateful, you know? But again, it's the people's own trauma, their thing. So, I mean, I've had to look at it within myself too. I'm not saying I'm above board with all of it, but I'm willing to be. Yeah. You know.
DS: I think accountability is that big piece of change that we're all striving for. It's not like calling this guy or this person out for re-sharing your stuff. It's like, no, the way we move forward is like you being accountable. for what has transpired. And your lack of accountability shows us that the cycle is gonna persist.
Reflecting Back on Past Content
CBW: Exactly. Let's show our accountability. I mean, I would go online, I would do stories and talk like, Hey, I did this. And it's only happened a few times, and I didn't know I wasn't above board. I didn't know what I was doing at the time. I was unaware because I grew up with this stuff. So it was pervasive to me. But even people would say, well, that even points to privilege, you know? And I get it. I understand where they're coming from and I wanna hear them. I wanna listen to them. I wanna understand because I have to do that too. I can't tell you how many people have come to me and as a gay man, they will ask you the most invasive fucking questions, okay. I kept saying I wasn't gonna cuss, but here I am with like, who's the top or bottom. all of that. And I'm like, that's major privilege. Now, I will tell them, I will be like, Hey, I have nothing to hide. I'll be transparent. But people don't realize that I don't go around saying, what's your favorite sex position? You know? I don't say who wears the pants in the family? I don't go around asking all of those things.
The Responsibility of Education
CBW: We have to educate people though. If we are in this position and we wanna be seen and heard, and we wanna be visible, part of our responsibility is education. And most people don't agree because most people are like, I shouldn't have to educate you. And I disagree because I'm a teacher anyway. So, you know, I'm like, listen, if I have a problem with it, I'm the one that has to speak up about it, or else it just keeps going, which is why we need more voices in this space talking about the integrity and accountability and really make it safe for everyone.
CBW: And that's my whole point. If my page does not feel safe for people, I don't mind pushing some buttons. I don't mind triggering some people, but I don't wanna do it for the sake of just doing it. I'm not doing it just for show or any of that. But even in my sessions, I wanna be compassionate about how I do it, and also laugh about it maybe. Right. Have some fun with it. Not make it so serious. Even in my book I'm working on, I'm like, how do I make people laugh about genocide? I don't think I can do it. Or people having their things stolen from them and all of that. I don't think, you know, I don't think we're we're at that point, but, I can at least be poignant about it. Poetic, loving, compassionate. And open to the story.
Memes as a Way of Disseminating Information
CBW: So yes, memes. That took us down a really long path, but to your point, I think they're a way of disseminating information. It's important right now. You know, we can laugh. It can bring some humor, and it can be a gateway to diving deeper. It can really be an opportunity for that.
DS: I think so too. And what I love about memes, and why I continue to post them, just on Mondays. For me, it's just like my favorite 10 of every Monday. So I don't have like a necessarily meme account, because I love my job too. But I think that there's so much truth to them that is just so concise, and it's like how five words can impact you. The meme that sticks out the most for me this year, I don't know the original author of it, but it was like the Zen Buddha guy under a tree has said, I became my full, authentic self when I realized I was cringe.
Embracing Parts of Ourselves that Appear to be Unlovable
CBW: Yeah. Yeah, no one put a water mark on it. And now it goes back to really what we've talked about the whole time is embracing those pieces of ourselves that appear to be, unlovable, to the point of cringe that we kind of seize up about, that we tense up about. And those are the parts we wanna go toward. My silliness and goofiness, because I have a lot of Sag in my chart, for my astrology people out there. I have a stellium, and it is in the sixth house by the way, and my Saturn in Virgo is square my Mercury in Sag. I mean, that's cringe all day long. I wanna like express and be silly and goofy, and then immediately I judge it. Immediately, I'm like, oh, God. That's uncomfortable. So, it's in my astrology. And that also goes back to trauma because I would be silly and goofy and I made people laugh while also like making people uncomfortable.
When you Show up as Yourself, People have to Confront Themselves
CBW: And so, you know, I've always made people uncomfortable. I think because I was always different, which is why I got called names in school and things. I'm pretty sure a lot of those people, I probably made know remarkably uncomfortable with their own stuff. Because when you show up as yourself, people can have to confront themselves, right? They have to look at that. So when you're okay being cringy, it sometimes can trigger other people. So I think, embracing all of the mess, as well as all the things that we think lack messiness, because life is all the things. When I make art, going back to that, one thing it taught me was I start off perfect. I have the blank canvas. I have the clean brushes. I have all the paints. Well, by the end, my palette is a mess. In process, the painting might look like just a bunch of blobs, right, on the canvas, nothing coherent. Well, even abstract art, coming through really with the advent of impressionism, by the way, for those that don't know. Impressionism started to deconstruct art and everyone in the beginning, you know, Van Gogh, of course, I think sold one painting in his life. Of course, he lived a short life, by the way, for those that don't know. He died early, probably from lead poisoning, from his cobalt blue paint, which drove him insane. Probably lack of hydration, going back to just drink the water and food. People didn't understand it. People, you know, in retrospect they do, but really there started to be this messiness and this deconstruction. And if you look at these painters, their early work in school, it didn't look that way. They were very much so learning from the classical, which again, we stand on the shoulder of giants, right. They learn from the classical. They stole from the classical techniques, that then they deconstructed to make these things, which then became the era of modern art, right. And surrealism grew out of and all of that.
Deconstructing Life, Messiness, Creativity, and Life
CBW: So I feel like life is a little bit like that. We start very, like, this is the right way to live. And then we start to deconstruct it and then we starts to get messy. Then we get the paint out and we start to throw it on the canvas and the brushes get messy and there's a balance to it all because as those that know it, when you don't clean your brushes, they dry up and they get jacked. You gotta find the balance between, okay, I'm gonna like clean this part up, but I'm gonna let that be messy in process. And you know, it's just all the pieces. But the art taught me that you had to be messy. When I was coating my aluminum plates with the photographic emulsion, I mean, that was super messy. That stuff went everywhere, and you kind of couldn't control it. It really taught me, I had to let go of the control. I had to let the emulsion dry the way it was gonna dry and the way the photo came out, which was very painterly usually, which I liked, I didn't know how it was gonna come out. I never knew. How did the emulsion set up? Was it thicker? Was it thinner? I mean, I learned how to regulate it to some degree because you eventually figure that out, but sometimes life you can't control it. You just have to let it be. And that's part of the human experience here.
DS: Absolutely. Well, I appreciate this conversation. I really do.
CBW: Same. Thank you.
“A Spiritual Guide in a Meat Suit”
DS: I am always surprised when I get to meet someone, and get to know them a lot better, and a lot deeper. And the second I met you, I knew I had to share you with the audience, cause I was like, people just need to know like how brilliant you are, how intelligent you are, how passionate you are about this work. And you know, I love this phrase that you have on your website. It's like, I'm a spirit guide in a meat suit. And I actually thought that was really well termed because that's actually how I felt about our session together, was like, there was inspiration. There was homework to be done after. There was this incredible psychic awareness about things that I was currently going through. And, if nothing else, there's so much depth to you that I was just so excited to share with the audience. I appreciate that. And we're gonna have links to, how to get to your website, how to book in with you. It's fun to know too, that you deal with relationships, because I won't. I'm like going to refer people to your relationship session with you.
CBW: Send them my way.
Relationship Readings and Referring to Other Lightworkers
DS: I will, because I think as a medium too, we have to work within our scope of practice and refer, refer, refer as much as possible. And so, absolutely, when people come to me about relationship stuff, I'm gonna be like, go see this man.
CBW: Well, we could, we could talk about it. We can talk about it. Yeah, my thing today was relationship and it was good. Well, I'm a practical human. I really think, you know, relationship has been driven by chemistry, and really we've been bumper cars, and we can make it conscious now. And there's a lot of research around it now, what you can do to work within the bond.
Grounding Relationship Readings
CBW: So my work is not just the woo you know, psychic, intuitive stuff, but also I want to ground it, and it comes out different every time, right? We want some specificity for that moment. What does this person need now, so they can carry it forward and make the choices they need to make? And really, I say, it's all relationship. We live in this world of duality on purpose. It is all here for us to experience relationship. We tend to put a lot of emphasis on the romance of things, but when we step back, we start to realize that we can become equanimous or, you know, approach everything with the equanimity, which is what I like to do, which is that I'm gonna treat every relationship the same. I say nobody's special. And so I try and treat my romantic partner the same as I would treat the person on the street, because I think that's really what will also support us. So, uh, my partners never liked that I say they're not special. You're special!
DS: You're too much. You're not special. Imagine!
CBW: I'm like, you're unique, I'm connected to you. I like our intimacy. So in that respect, you know. But I found out that if I treat my romantic partners different than everyone else, it kind of, I get stuck. The attachment shows up on me so quickly. And I'm like, oh, can't do that. That's gonna take me down a rabbit hole, and a dark one at that.
DS: That pattern is done.
CBW: Yeah, all my patterns will show up, right. Which is what our relationships tend to do. They're really triggering us, and also veiling our perceptions cuz we get kind of stuck in it. So it's good stuff, but yeah, whatever you need. Not just you, but anyone that's listening, we can, we can go there. We can go there, but thank you. Thank you for the compliments and thank you for the support. I really appreciate it.
DS: Of course. Absolutely. And we'll have links to everything below. Thank you so much for coming, Christian.
CBW: Thank you.