Here is a confession for you, I’ve always wanted to be a witch. Casting spells, wearing a cloak, studying hard for my O.W.Ls were all part of the dream. Since my letter to Hogwarts failed to arrive, I’ve decided on a career interviewing one instead.
Meet Bambi Leong Kai Mei, better known online as DarkWitchBambi, the 28-year-old full-time ‘witch’ in Singapore. With an online store and physical shop called The Love Witch, Bambi rakes in a whopping S$70,000 a month.
We caught up with her to determine whether it is as magical as it sounds and what being a modern-day witch in Singapore entails.
Witchcraft 101
You’d be surprised to know that Bambi did not attend The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry but instead graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the National University of Singapore.
Like most witches and Maybelline, she was born with it.
For me, being a psychic first and foremost was what drove my success. Being able to see spirits, and hear the otherworldly, and then using a physical system such as a pendulum to confirm everything made my over 1,000 five-star reviews to date.
– Bambi Leong, founder of DarkWitchBambi and The Love Witch
Moreover, Bambi mentions that her family, especially the females on the mother’s side of the family, has always been spiritually sensitive, so this career path did not surprise her family as much as one would think.
Bambi started on e-commerce marketplace Carousell with a tarot card reading service. A little technicality of not putting the disclaimer of “spiritual services”, and her business was shut down.
She wasn’t too worried, though, as some of her prominent friends, including Lorraine Warren’s grandson, Chris McKinnell and well-known Etsy sellers such as GreyKindredSpirits, encouraged her to bring her craft to a more international platform.
Subsequently, in 2019, she started up her own website, DarkWitchBambi, which features an online store where you can buy a host of spells, ritual oils, charged candles, and spelled accessories.
Given the success of her Etsy store that made a sweet S$30,000 a month, she went on to bootstrap her first physical store called The Love Witch Singapore on 1 April of this year at Sim Lim Square.
Not only that, but Bambi also runs classes for you to become a witch or wizard, complete with two levels and a comprehensive curriculum. Her latest batch of 30 students have just completed their courses and are now full-fledged witches.
Altogether, Bambi said that she earns S$70,000 a month, which was enough to retire her mother.
Putting magick into motion
The most interesting part of Bambi’s job description is, of course, casting spells.
“DarkWitchBambi and The Love Witch Singapore offers services and products that help with love, money, protection, and reversing generational curses,” explained Bambi.
Both her companies also “offer people a real physical experience to communicate with Higher Deities, especially with a spelled pendulum and a portal. Anyone could walk into The Love Witch Singapore and try the portals with a pendulum”.
Seeing as we are quite the sceptical bunch, I was curious how receptive Singaporeans are to Bambi’s powers and skills. It appears that we might not be as cynical as I thought we were.
After receiving quite a large amount of local media coverage, Bambi tells me that her clientele is now largely made up of Singaporeans. Before this, her clients were mostly from overseas.
“We get a lot of people asking for curses to be removed, as well as money, luck boost, and also love spells”, Bambi says. Yes, the allure of winning the first prize for 4D is enough to turn any non-believer.
Interestingly, when it comes to matters of the heart, Bambi is not one to dabble unnecessarily.
“We reject 80 per cent of the love spells mostly because we take pride in factors like compatibility, mental health, and the safety of our customers to prevent backfiring of any karmic issues.”
“Ultimately, we want to improve the mental health of our customers and not let anyone sink into desperation”. After all, a spell can’t help a horrid personality when it comes to love.
Double, double toil and trouble
With spells, it’s not as simple waving a wand. It’s a process that involves a lot of preparation such as consulting with deities and tarot cards.
Before a spell and ritual are performed, it is essential to “see” and “hear” clearly from a particular deity you wish to work with. It is then necessary to seek permission from them to perform spells for others.
– Bambi Leong, founder of DarkWitchBambi and The Love Witch
Bambi acts as the middleman between deities and her customers before they are granted what they want. It’s a lengthy process which explains why her spells start from as low as S$160 to as much as S$30,000 for a spell. The more complicated the spell, the more expensive it is.
For example, a simple White Magick Protection would only go for S$160. But, let’s say you would like to banish your pesky colleagues (yes, that’s what it says), it will be a little more, say S$380. Then, for Eternal Curses, those are quite serious indeed. It will be S$30,000 because you are cursing them forever, after all.
“The success of a spell is through thorough consultation of tarot reading with at least three to four coherent confirmation cards, seeking permissions from higher divinities, performing the ritual with energy work and offerings, and then confirming once more with the divinities using a pendulum as well as tarot reading.”
Seeing as some of her work colleagues are all-powerful beings, you have to wonder whether Bambi ever gets caught in their crosshairs.
“There was never a time I was put in danger by the spirits/divinities I work with — a lot of people mistake that there are “evil” higher beings — but think of it this way, we are too insignificant for them to even want to mess with us,” she said simply.
A lifelong calling
When you have witch as your job description, it’s hard not to be met with a few raised eyebrows, and Bambi is no stranger to that.
“I think a lot of people mistake my work as a new-age thing. It is not,” she said firmly.
Then, there are the naysayers who think what she does is a scam, to which she rationalises: “What I do is the same as what leaders of religious/institutionalised establishments do too, except the difference is that I work with very ancient divinities such as Hecate, Ishtar, Eir etc. —that is, to consecrate, to bless items, and to seek permissions from higher divinities”
We are bombarded with images of witches using their powers for mischief and malicious intent, and Bambi hopes to dispel all of that.
“I hope I use up every drop of my talents for humanity. I hope at the end of my life, people will love each other and drop all forms of manipulation and schemes towards one another.”
A job like Bambi’s is a commitment and one that she wants to stay on long-term.
“I think that not only do I strongly believe in the divinities I work with, they have also helped me so much in sorting out my depressive thoughts and becoming a strong person,” she said.
Protection spells and reversing generational curses are all in a day’s work, but Bambi has loftier nobler aspirations. She dreams of opening schools in third-world countries, empowering children with the skills to earn a living, and using her magick to instil good values. Perhaps, even a crystal shop in the future if it’s the cards.
So, if you ever need a little help with that job promotion or perhaps making sure the office Karen stops eating your yoghurt, The Love Witch is at your service. Oh, and she takes GrabPay too.
Featured Image Credit: The Love Witch