Today we’d like to introduce you to Aly Cardinalli.
Hi Aly, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, you could tell our readers some of your backstories.
I was raised as a witch in secret. My paternal grandmother taught me secretly when I would visit my father every other weekend. My mother was a different kind of witch, and I learned from watching some of her techniques. When I was about 13, I had my first unfortunate shamanic transformation and continued to become more psychic following near-death experiences. I kept practicing the old ways in private, giving services to those who knew my practice. As a developing psychic, I didn’t have anyone to turn to who could help me understand what was happening to me. So after decades of learning about parapsychology, continuing my indigenous-based practices, and working with spirits, I was forced into transitioning out of the world of arts and spiritual education. I opened BearBridge Academy of Witchcraft and Psychic Development with eight students on October 1st, 2021. Now we have over 500 hundred students worldwide, a staff of five teachers throughout the US and Canada, and a Witch’s Council to oversee our mission and vision. We are an online learning platform for students who want to learn faith, spirituality, psychic development, parapsychology, witchcraft, the occult, shamanic development, and mysticism. This had been an overwhelming growth and response. Like me, people are hungry for mentorship, education, and legitimate certifying systems. I’m proud to have started this odd little school because we are helping people like me who felt alone and can now journey into their truth.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
For the most part, we have had a smooth road. We have had some pushback because we teach dark spiritual arts as well, but our point of view is this: Healers need to know what the diseases are and the motives for harm. If you give someone a gun (and they will get it anyway), shouldn’t someone teach them how to use it correctly? Also, even though we teach the history and application of dark craft techniques, people can still use them. Aptitude plays a factor; however, we would be contributing to cultural erasure by ignoring these parts of spiritual history and religious practices. It’s important to give the full story, not just the ones that make people comfortable. In our shamanic department, we get pushback from newer practitioners who learned one way and have decided that is the only way to do something. This always saddens the teaching staff and me because shamanic practices have been around for almost 68,000 years worldwide. Although there are remarkable similarities between the practices, there is more than one way to access the divine, and these students who push back refuse to reach outside of what they have already learned to add other ways. Finally, in our psychic department, we require repeatable outcomes. We sometimes get students who want to learn how to deceive people by using tarot cards instead of understanding how to hone their highly sensitive gifts/curses. These people only stay in the program for a short time. They always say they are clairvoyant or have “all of the psychic senses” and that they can always tell the future or access spirits, and that’s not reality. Psychic work is biological nor mechanical. And these folks are in it for mentalism instead of parapsychology. As I said, they don’t last long in the school because they are consistently disproven for their claims, but that makes space for our serious and gifted students.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My private practice is as a witch doctor specializing in exorcisms and as an oracle medium. What the heck does that mean? So a witchdoctor, according to indigenous practices, is a spiritual person within a community who handles spirit mediation/extraction, is a psychic medium, a healer, a spiritual counselor, a teacher, an artist, handles transitions for the community, and offers stories (like sermons or myths) as allegories to remind us of our humanity. When I was little, I saw the monsters that most children feared. Although some were scary, most just seemed to follow me around. Like most children, I lost most of my sight until I went through a near-death experience at twenty-one in an attempted homicide. The trauma broke the part of us that separates us from the spirit world. Because my specialty as a medium is entities, this makes me a perfect exorcist. Growing up in Hawai’i, we have a different approach to handling spirits than western culture. Instead of looking at every spirit as if it is out to get you, we look at their nature, needs, situation, and health. Look at us as a zoologist who wants to move spirits in the safest way possible. And with that, this is what I teach. Because my specialty is exorcisms, a lot of training and skills come before it. So I teach psychic, faith, rootwork, and shamanic classes. We are slowly adding more teachers because I can’t handle all the information. Before accepting my role to take over my grandmother’s calling, and now mine, as a witch doctor, I was a performing arts specialist. I am an expert in 17 different dance styles, an expert in vocal performance in 7 styles, and an award-winning theatrical director. My passion has always been education, so I have taught in these areas, trying to make legitimate performers who touch audiences with their spirit and skill.
In ancient West Africa, we had the griot, the storyteller, utilizing the performing arts and mysticism to keep their tribe moving forward. Where I’m from, Hawaiian dance teachers, Kumu Hula, are the ones who remind us of the stories of the past, language, culture, spirituality, and community. If you go to pre-colonization, the lines of culture, spirituality, and mysticism were blurred because they were accessible to everyone. Naturally, the highly sensitive, like myself, would be separated to teach the newer generations and to help guide individuals or protect them. We are few, so my goal is to help bring them back. I will keep on teaching and keep on guiding. These potential witch doctors, mystics, psychics, and witches are not less in our society. They are just undiscovered. My passion is to help them discover themselves.
We all have different ways of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success is authentic community building. Bam. That’s it. When can people thrive in each other’s support, and I have to make that space? Ooof. Delicious success. We have had three local retreats for students worldwide, and they are growing exponentially. Our next one is Oct 6-8, 2023, and I’m so excited to see how we will build an authentic spiritual community that comes together to learn and practice the spiritual arts.
Pricing:
- All of our classes are online. We offer self-paced for those with busy schedules, but most of our classes are live zoom classes with real teachers and interactive learning. All available at www.bearbridgeacademy.com
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bearbridgeacademy.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/bearbridgeacademy
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bearbridgeacademy/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3RN15UAdnWVgQEbPcQb_xQ
- Other: www.alycardinalli.com
