Meet Carla Macapinlac

We were lucky to catch up with Carla Macapinlac recently and have shared our conversation below.

Carla, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

My purpose wasn’t something I had to search for, and it certainly wasn’t a dramatic revelation. It was more about finally acknowledging what had quietly shaped me since childhood. Two passions were with me from the beginning: writing and psychology; although for me, psychology wasn’t only about understanding people. It was also about making sense of the spiritual and paranormal experiences I was having as a child.

Loss and death touched my life early and opened questions most children don’t usually ask. I found myself wondering what happens beyond this life, why we’re here, and what it all means. Writing helped me process those emotions, and psychology — especially parapsychology and anything that explored the unseen — gave me language for experiences I wanted to understand. At the same time, I was endlessly curious about the human spirit. In my twenties, that curiosity expanded as I devoured books on human darkness and moral complexity, wanting to understand the full spectrum of human nature.

For a long time, I believed I had to choose one path. But the truth revealed itself slowly: my purpose was never about the “what.” It was always about the why. When I committed to serving others — helping them understand themselves, navigate change, or reconnect with their inner wisdom — everything began to align. Writing, intuitive work, spirituality, teaching, psychology, and even parapsychology converged into a natural expression of who I am.

Choosing service allowed the path to reveal itself. My purpose became less of a destination and more of a way of walking through the world, one that integrates meaning, intuition, and a lifelong willingness to explore both the human experience and the mysteries that exist beyond it.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Before I ever became a healer or teacher, I was a writer. I even left behind a well-paying corporate career so I could focus on writing, intuition, and my deep desire to understand the human experience. From that foundation grew the healing and teaching practice I have today.

Over the years, this work evolved into Ascension Wisdom Institute, the home of my healing sessions, spiritual teachings, and intuitive development programs. I often describe myself as a Threshold Guide, which means I support people through the transitions, initiations, and turning points of their lives — the spaces between who they’ve been and who they’re becoming. This includes intuitive guidance and healing, as well as more complex energetic and space-clearing work that many practitioners shy away from. Holding space for both the light and the shadow has always been an integral part of my path.

Last year, I celebrated my five-year business anniversary with a full rebrand, and this December marks six years of doing this work professionally. My business continues to evolve alongside me, expanding and shifting in response to my own growth and the changing needs of the collective.

At my healing studio in Oakland, I work with clients through quantum energy healing, sound healing, intuitive readings, and energetic clearings. These one-on-one sessions remain some of the most meaningful parts of my work because of the depth of support and transformation that can unfold — not only when someone feels truly seen, but when they learn to work with energy and information that exists beyond the physical senses.

Beyond my private practice, I teach through two main branches of Ascension Wisdom Institute. The Consciousness Expansion School focuses on intuitive awakening, spiritual sovereignty, and multidimensional awareness. The Dragon Mystery School explores elemental and cosmic teachings, dragon consciousness, and transformative spiritual practice. Guiding students through these pathways — and witnessing them reconnect with their gifts — has been one of the greatest rewards of my career.

The joy of creation has always been the undercurrent of my work. I published my book Vade Mecum: An Always-Present Guide to Your Divine Path in 2021, and I continue to write regularly through Mindful Morsels on Substack and on Medium, where I explore spirituality, healing, intuition, and the deeper patterns moving through our world. Writing is where my inner listening meets expression.

To make my teachings more accessible, I created the Wisdom Library, a growing collection of digital guides and offerings that give people grounded, self-paced support. As my work expands, the library continues to grow with it.

One of my most meaningful projects right now is my upcoming Dragon Consciousness Oracle Deck, a 50+ card deck inspired by years of teachings, transmissions, and lived experience. And by the time this interview is published, I’ll also be opening The Dragon Realm, a new writing and teaching space devoted to deeper transmissions and stories that have been waiting to come through.

At the heart of everything I do — whether through writing, teaching, healing, or space clearing — is the same intention: to help people trust their intuition, access their inner wisdom, and move through their lives with clarity, courage, and a deeper connection to who they truly are.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Looking back, the three qualities that have shaped my journey the most are Trust, Alignment, and Evolution. These qualities have guided every major transition in my life and continue to anchor my work today.

1. Trust
Trust has been the foundation of everything — not just trusting myself, but trusting my inner guidance, the timing of my life, and the larger intelligence that supports us all. Trust is what allowed me to leave a stable corporate career, follow a spiritual path long before it made sense on paper, and more recently, choose to work more independently so I can stay connected to my own creative and intuitive rhythm.

My advice: Trust begins with small, consistent choices. Pay attention to your inner yeses and noes, and let them shape your path one step at a time.

2. Alignment
Alignment is the ability to listen deeply — to your intuition, your body, your energy, and the subtle intelligence that moves beneath the surface. It’s the inner compass that helps you discern what is truly yours to carry and what isn’t. Over the years, my relationship with guidance has shifted from looking outward to receiving more from my own higher awareness. Alignment is what keeps my work clear, grounded, and resonant.

My advice: Alignment is deeply personal. It matters less what others are doing and more whether you are connected to your own signature — the unique way your gifts and inner wisdom want to move through you. When you stay attuned to that truth, your path becomes far easier to navigate, and your work becomes unmistakably your own.

3. Evolution
Evolution means allowing yourself to grow beyond the versions of you that no longer fit. Sometimes that requires letting go of what no longer aligns, even when it once served you well. In my work, this often means retiring programs when their energy no longer matches where I am or where the collective is headed. Every time I’ve honored that intuition, it has opened a doorway for new offerings that want to be birthed through me. The willingness to release old identities makes room for deeper, more aligned creations.

My advice: Let yourself be a beginner again and again. Every ending makes room for something new to be born, and evolution becomes much easier when you trust that what is arriving is more aligned than what you’re leaving behind. Allow what is complete to fall away, and let the next iteration of you come forward. Growth is often uncomfortable, but it always clarifies who you are becoming. Every threshold invites you to rise into a deeper expression of yourself.

No matter where someone is on their path, these three qualities — trusting their inner guidance, aligning with what’s true, and allowing themselves to evolve — create a foundation for profound transformation.

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

I would spend it doing exactly what I’m doing now: living my purpose with as much presence, creativity, and authenticity as I can.

I would keep writing, because writing has always been the purest expression of my soul. It’s the thread that has followed me since childhood, the place where meaning and intuition meet, and the part of my legacy I know will continue long after I’m gone. I would write more books, share more stories, and give form to the teachings that move through me — not from urgency, but from devotion.

I would continue serving clients and students, because guiding others back to their own inner mastery is one of the greatest honors of my life. This work doesn’t feel like something I “do.” It feels like who I am. It’s the kind of path you don’t retire from, because it isn’t a job — it’s a way of being. Very recently, when my husband and I were talking about his retirement plans, I realized I couldn’t see myself stepping away from this work. Even if the way I serve evolves, there will always be a part of me that wants to create, to guide, to help others remember who they are.

I would keep choosing creativity and inner freedom — the very reasons I left corporate life. Soul work gives me the spaciousness to follow the rhythms of my own energy, to honor what wants to be birthed, and to live in alignment with my truth. It allows me to build a life that is supportive, meaningful, and liberating, rather than structured around someone else’s expectations.

The beauty of this path is that it expands with me. It grows as I grow. And if my time were limited to one more decade, I would spend it exactly this way — creating, writing, teaching, healing, and walking beside others as they step into their own mastery. Because for me, that is the most fulfilling way I can imagine spending my life.

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Image Credits

Headshot by Elisa Cicinelli Photography

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