

Today we’d like to introduce you to Christian Bradley West.
Hi Christian, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
When people ask me how I got started, I often think to myself: kicking and screaming like the rest of us. Then my brain traces my cellular memory further back, and I think of a Big Bang. Then I think of how we all must crawl out of the primordial ooze of our conditioning, simultaneously experiencing the morphic and iterative process of becoming.
This is where I’m at these days, returning to my roots: poetry and symbols and art. My insides feel like a rock tumbler smoothing out my experiences and memories to accommodate more grace and less resentment. I am a kaleidoscopic array of inspired thoughts and actions constantly bumping against the rigidity of who I’ve been and the refinement of who I strive to become, which ironically is myself, whoever that is.
Right now I take care of my ninety-one-year-old grandmother, who is in steady decline. Ram Dass said if you think you’re enlightened, go spend a week with your family. I’ve been here two and a half years. I didn’t think I was enlightened before I came here, but it has been on my bucket list.
I started thinking about death at a very young age—I’d say six or so. I’d find dead things in the forest and bring them home with wide-eyed enthusiasm and was met with my parents’ alarming discomfort. They refused to let me keep the opossum skeleton I found wrapped around a limb of the tree I was climbing. I accidentally killed my fair share of lizards and frogs I’d put in a jar. I didn’t know how life worked. But I knew it would end and reconciling this became something that gave me more fire to live.
My grandmother is slowing down more every day, and I do everything I can to keep her comfortable. This iteration of my life is caregiver. Thankfully, I eventually learned how to keep those lizards and frogs alive.
Death is the great leveler. It happens to everything because everything changes form. Accepting this has been enlightening. This can also be depressing. I have learned to leave space for the grief. Anticipating loss is probably why many humans ignore the inevitable for as long as possible. I come from being innocently fascinated by death, to accepting its inevitability and the surge of life that death contrasts when we keep it close. We all start off the same and we all end the same. This is poetry to me.
I’m in my own transition. I’m technically mid-career, whatever that means. My career is a river with thousands of tributaries I continue to explore. Caregiver is just one. And I won’t be here much longer. I really love creating beautiful things and supporting other people’s creativity. I hope to keep doing this. We’ll see where I land.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As a caregiver to a family member, a profound challenge lies in persuading the rest of your family to acknowledge the situation at hand. This aspect has proven to be the most arduous, testing the endurance of my compassion. We learn to divert our attention from our sorrow, tucking it away in the hopes that it remains intact and doesn’t shatter, breaking us in the process.
Throughout this journey, I have found myself nurturing my inner child and sometimes having to take on a parental role for other family members. People often resist change if given the choice. Undoubtedly, change is a formidable undertaking. While it is commonly said that change is the only constant, I hold a different belief— the present moment stands as the true constant. The transitions we undergo unfold within the realm of this very moment, a sanctuary I seek solace in.
Another hurdle I’ve encountered is addressing generational trauma. Reconnecting with your family invariably brings this trauma to the surface, evoking a sense of regression to a vulnerable state, feeling like a child trapped in an adult body. This is where the concept of reparenting becomes crucial. I find myself entangled in power struggles reminiscent of my teenage years, where I am perceived as the troublemaker for simply highlighting the existing issues. The core issue lies in witnessing my grandmother’s gradual decline, both physically and mentally, as age takes its toll, a burden too heavy for me to bear alone.
In my pursuit of embodying equanimity, my aim is not power but rather fostering meaningful connections. Power dynamics have a tendency to erode these connections. Practicing this principle within the family setting serves as the ultimate spiritual endeavor. I refuse to revert to the anxious teenager of my past, dismissed or silenced. Instead, I stand firm in facing suffering head-on, committed to addressing and transcending it.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Years ago, I was known for doing drawings of found vernacular photos, and keeping the feel and size of the original, I would pile them in cigar boxes for people to riffle through as if at an antique market. Then I became known for my spiritual meme account, The Country Clairvoyant. I started doing Tarot and astrology readings professionally through that. Before that I only did readings for friends and family, but I felt inspired to offer it for people outside of those circles. It’s been amazing. I love it. And it carried me through Covid lockdown.
I’m now focused a lot on my writing. Memes are great, but I need to express myself in a more thorough way. Memes feel like snacks. I want to give people a meal. I’ll launch my blog soon. It’s called Dumpster Fire Phoenix. I have memoirs and a few fiction books inside of me too. With my art, I’ve shifted from my drawings and turned toward ceramics. I take wasp and hornets’ nests and coat them in porcelain. Once they’re fired in the kiln, you’re left with a porcelain nest. Nature makes half the art, and I do the rest. These two mediums seem to balance each other out. I can’t have one without the other. I need to work with my hands and the earth and talk about it.
I continue to do astrology and tarot readings and have no plans on stopping. They are magic. I have no other word for them.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
I really love this question. Life is a series of interruptions that alter and shape how we live. Covid being one of them.
This crisis has exposed how much we need community care while also exposing the challenge of balancing the needs of the individual with the greater good of the collective. The root of the word crisis is “choice.” And humanity is sorting through a hoarder’s house of choices.
The pandemic also exposed the disparity between peer-reviewed scientific studies and corporate agendas. Good scientists and researchers ask questions and are willing to suspend conclusions and biases and modify their ideas based on the evidence. And if the evidence changes, then new questions are asked and new research begins. This doesn’t hold true for corporate agendas that communicate through strategy and the need to meet their quotas. And again, this begs the question: what serves the greater good, not the bottom line?
Covid-19 also revealed a lot of suffering. People are getting more and more lonely. I’ve learned that I can’t stand by and hope things change. I want to continue to bring awareness to ways we can work together to alleviate suffering and harm. And it will take everyone.
Pricing:
- Astrology Reading $177.00
- Relationship Reading $111.11
- General Reading $111.11
Contact Info:
- Website: www.christianbwest.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/thecountryclairvoyant
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thecountryclairvoyant
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/christianbwest
Image Credits
Christian Bradley West