Tarot Tag: Danice Talks Practical Magic

If you’ve been following me on Instagram Stories, you may have noticed these one-card readings I’ve been reposting almost everyday. They all use the Practical Magic Starter Deck paired with everything from poetry to song lyrics, lengthy points for reflection to impactful quotes.

The mentions piqued my interest when someone asked me how I kept coming up with these readings and I had to explain that it wasn’t ME who was doing the readings but someone whose tags I was reposting. That made me decide to send a private message to Danice of @inwardfangirl to ask her about how she reads, what tarot means to her, and her own personal #practicalmagical experience.

Danice works in pay tv as a channel manager is also a romance author and a recovering K-pop fan (SAME, DANICE… lol). Lucky for us, she happily obliged to my interview and gave some meaty, interesting answers I thought you’d all want to read. What this interview taught me was how cool it is that all of us have so many varied, unique, and personal stories when it comes to tarot… but at the end of the day, we all share a common love for how this practice makes our lives (and maybe the lives of our friends and family) just a little bit better.

I hope you enjoy this Q&A!

PM: How’d you get into tarot?

DANICE: I got into it very recently! It was when I started seeing on my Twitter feed through my mutuals' RT's how Jessica Dore uses tarot to transmit messages of self-care through mindfulness that I started to understand how tarot can be useful to further explore my inner world and possibly deepen my own mindfulness practice. To get my feet wet, I started with an oracle deck but shortly after (like, mere hours after) I decided to really go for it and purchase my first tarot deck from Practical Magic!

PM: Describe your personal tarot practice.

DANICE: It was surprisingly easy for me to incorporate tarot into what I was already doing in terms of having a mindfulness practice. It felt really natural, not to mention fun learning about this new tool for understanding why I am the way I am.

I have several journals that I work with for tarot. I like going through the ritual of drawing one card every morning, right after I set my intention for the day, and just before writing my morning pages. Usually I'll shuffle and cut and let the cards give me the message I need. Sometimes I'll ask a specific question, but those times are rare. Then I'll sit with the card and reach for my morning pages notebook, which has quickly become my "Today's Card" journal, and focus my entry on the card I picked. I also like filling out the Practical Magic diary because it's extremely helpful having that week-at-a-glance perspective when looking for recurring themes, or even cards that appear more often than others. It's crazy seeing how the daily cards fit into the shape of one's week, month, and year.

Then, I have a dedicated workbook I use to answer the questions on the Practical Magic Guide/Journal! Here, I like to take my time going through the prompts. It gives me a chance to go into a deeper dive with the PM deck and bond with it.

PM: How did you come across the PM deck?

DANICE: I found the PM deck via mutuals on Instagram @reinabambao and @inesbyao! When I saw the PM deck, I couldn't stop thinking about it because I felt that it was a deck that I could easily understand. The collage aesthetic and the images really did call out to me. I love how the cards were put together. I'm so happy I came across it when I did. I purchased it as a Christmas gift to myself!

PM: What pushed you to start sharing your card draws on social media?

DANICE: I wanted to practice my card-reading skills and I thought using IG stories was a good way to document that since I was curious to find out if any of the messages I pulled would also resonate with friends who followed me. The daily draws are obviously inspired by the aforementioned Jessica Dore.

PM: What have you gotten out of the experience so far?

DANICE: So far I'm having a lot of fun learning! Surprisingly, tarot for me has been a very grounding experience, as opposed to it supposedly being this mystical, esoteric practice.

PM: How do you derive meaning from the cards?

DANICE: I read through the Practical Magic Guide as soon as I received my deck in order to ground myself with the meaning behind each card. I have to thank you for creating a guide that is straightforward and accessible (aww thank you!). It was the first time that I was able to approach tarot without being intimidated. After that, it was easy to be guided by how the cards made me feel and what came to mind as I drew specific cards.

Sometimes when I look at the card I just pulled, the song lyrics or some kind of avatar will immediately come to mind and whatever comes can feel super apt; so perfect I couldn't ignore it. Pictorially, the PM deck makes so much sense to me, it's easy for me to understand and make connections based on what I see and how the images make me feel. There's a clicking, locking feeling that comes with it. I know I said that tarot for me is grounding, but when the woo-woo jumps out, you have to recognize that.

Sometimes, when I'm not feeling so instant and need more information to interpret a card, I'll check the PM guide and also other tarot guides to see if any of the meanings resonate with me. Sometimes I'll look for the same card in my Smith-Waite deck to double-check.

I love reading tarot guides! The one that you recommend in the PM guide, "WTF Is Tarot… And How Do I Do It?" by Bakara Wintner is amazing. I am also in the middle of reading Michelle Tea's "Modern Tarot.”

PM: What do you wish people knew about tarot that is often overlooked?

DANICE: I think the reason why I was resistant to it before was that I associated it with a lot of mystical rituals/hidden knowledge that I was afraid to get wrong somehow. I like how you describe tarot as "pictures on cards". Anyone can use it at any point in their lives. No special prior experience is necessary because written guides can be accessed everywhere should one really want to study it. The main thing anyone interested in reading tarot really needs is curiosity and trust in their own intuition. And like any practice, the more one does it, the better we get at it.

PM: What are your top three favorite decks (oracle or tarot)?

DANICE: Because I am an absolute beginner and a tarot noob, I only have three at the moment but I promise they're all good ones!

The Practical Magic tarot deck! (PM: aww, thank you!) It's my first tarot deck and I love it so much! Aesthetically it suits me. I feel like I get where it's coming from and I understand the images easily; the meaning of each card comes through very clearly.

The Literary Witches oracle deck is amazing! The art is awesome, and it's very feminist.

The Rider Smith-Waite deck because it's foundational. I have an off-brand centennial version.

PM: What is a practical and magical life to you?

DANICE: Right now I'm reading a beautiful book called "Weave The Liminal" by Laura Tempest Zakroff and in it she emphasizes the importance of working with what you have and paying attention to what works for you, personally.

To me, working with what we have and making what we have work for us is magic.

Find Danice on Instagram and Twitter at @hastyteenflick and @danicemaepsison.