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Nina Lee Braden is many things to many people. She is a wife, mother, college level instructor, editor, teacher and student of Tarot ... and much more. She maintains a wonderful Tarot site (one that I would certainly consider a Tarot resource site), and is a knowledgible presence on several Tarot e-lists, and is very sharing of her time and wisdom. In her first book, "Tarot For Self Discovery", Nina Lee takes us on a wonderful journey into ourselves. In the following interview, we get to know a little about the personal Nina Lee.
BC: In what manner did the Tarot first enter your life?
NLB:I don't remember when I first became aware of Tarot. I remember reading Charles Williams' The Greater Trumps when I was in grad school the first time. (This novel uses the Tarot as the central symbol/plot device.) I do remember vividly, however, when I first became involved with Tarot.
During my second time around in grad school, I was taking a graduate course in contemporary American poetry. In doing some research for my class, I ran across a reference to Tarot cards. I was vaguely intrigued. A few days later, I stopped in a major chain bookstore. There was a large display of Tarot cards at the cash register. Impulsively I bought two decks. I began playing with the decks and was immediately hooked.
BC: Who in the Tarot field was influential in fostering your understanding of the Tarot?
NLB: Early on, I became active on both Prodigy and GEnie, major online services. This was in 1990, and the internet didn't exist as we currently know it. Instead, there were many local bulletin boards and also several major online services. Most major online services had their own bulletin boards, chat areas, and file storage areas in addition to other features which were unique to each individual service. I found Tarot discussion areas on both Prodigy and GEnie, and the people on those boards were immensely helpful. Some of them I knew only by a screen name or handle, but the overall online Tarot community was my first teacher, and it was an excellent one, helping me in several ways.
First, they encouraged me to buy different decks, to get a feel for how Tarot works in different decks. Second, they encouraged me to use three-card spreads instead of the Celtic Cross, which was a major breakthrough for me. Third, they encouraged me to make up my own spreads, to be inventive. Fourth, they recommended the books of Mary Greer and Rachel Pollack. The books of these two women have been extremely influential and insightful. Finally, on GEnie, we would swap readings in email, on the bulletin boards, and in the chat rooms. This gave me a lot of reading practice in a safe environment because others would chime in with additional comments. You didn't feel so nervous as a beginner doing readings when you knew that others would help out with your interpretations. I also had the opportunity to see how others read the cards, and this was an excellent education in itself.
BC: What guided you into Tarot as a profession?
NLB: I was a single mom in grad school for the second time, and although I was getting child support, I was looking for a way to earn a little extra income. I also enjoy teaching, and teaching classes about Tarot seemed like a wonderful way to make a little money doing something that I loved.
BC: What do you see as the basis for your instruction? What do you wish your students to take away from your classes?
NLB: More than anything else, I want my students to go away with a sense of empowerment. I want them to realize that life has meaning, and that meaning can be understood. I want to help them discover who they are and what their purpose is in life. I want to help them to grow as individuals and to help them in their service to themselves, their families, and their communities.
BC: How do you see the Tarot today in your life? How is this different from when you first began your studies?
NLB: Today, Tarot is the touchstone, the center, the basis of my life. It is the core around which all else revolves. It is my first and best teacher. When I first began with Tarot, it was something fun, and it was also something which helped me deal with depression and stress. Today, it still helps with depression and stress, and it is still fun, but it is much more than that. Not an hour goes by that I am not enriched in some way by Tarot.
BC: In the years that I have known you on the internet, you have always maintained an extensive, and very well done, site for Tarot and related studies. What was the genesis for this site?
NLB: On GEnie, I eventually became a SysOp (systems operator) or manager of the New Age RoundTable. I later went on to become the SysOp of the New Age Forum on AT&T Interchange. (Both GEnie and AT&T Interchange are no longer in existence.) As SysOp, I wrote a great deal of material for our members. I loved online services, and I loved being a SysOp. After AT&T decided to close Interchange, I really wanted to find another place to be a SysOp, but things were changing. The internet was growing at an incredible rate. The internet seemed to be the direction of the future, and so I started a simple little web site which gradually grew.
BC: Your site is undergoing extensive renovation. How has your worldview changed?
NLB: At first, I was just into Tarot. I was a Tarot "purist." I had no interest in alternative healing, in astrology, or any other New Age, occult, or metaphysical subjects. Later, I began to grow increasingly interested in a wide variety of metaphysical concerns. My web site reflected those changes. However, it also reflected my attempts to conform to what others were doing and what the public seemed to want.
I became tired and unhappy with my web site. It was huge, with several hundred pages, but I was feeling sluggish and bloated. I almost took it down altogether. Instead, I decided to streamline. I've taken down huge sections of it, and I'm slowly adding new content and revising the old content. My new guideline is to only include content if it's something that I like, something that I enjoy, something that gives me pleasure, and something that reflects my current thinking.
I don't make money from my website. In fact, it costs me a small monthly fee, so I've decided to do just what is fun for me. For example, I don't like doing reviews, so there are no more reviews. I hate keeping links current, so there are no more links.
In addition, my current spiritual work centers on personal growth, personal discovery, and personal transformation. As I slowly change the web site, it will more and more stress these areas. Some articles of this sort have always been on my site, but they will become increasingly prominent.
Finally, I've started putting material on the web for my freshman composition students. I teach English at a community college, and I've begun building a section of my website for them.
BC: In your personal work, are there Tarot decks, or specific types of decks that you prefer to use?
NLB: I like to play with different decks. However, the decks that I keep coming back to are the Universal Waite, Robin Wood, Osho Zen, Voyager, Hanson-Roberts, and Animal-Wise. I tend to like decks that are attractive and colorful. I don't do a lot with specialty decks, historical decks, or decks without pictorial pips.
BC: Your book, "Tarot For Self Discovery", is a wonderful gift to the Tarot community. It is written with the same heart that your posts to on line e-groups have shown. How did this book come about?
NLB: First, thanks for the compliment. The reason that the book has the same feel as my emails is that much of the book began as emails. I started an email group called "Tarot of Self Discovery." I used "of" instead of "for" because the email list service that I was using couldn't handle the extra letter of "for" over "of." In this email group, I didn't want to duplicate what other groups were doing. There were already several excellent email groups, specifically TarotL (at that time Tarot-L). I wanted to do something in my email group that wasn't already being done. I hit on the idea of working Tarot exercises. Originally, I planned for everyone in the group to either write exercises or to post exercises of other people that they liked. However, I was the only one who ended up writing exercises. I wrote one, then two, then three, and when I reached thirty-five or so, I got the opportunity to turn them into a book which eventually had fifty-two exercises.
BC: I know that your work within the Tarot world is ongoing. In fact - I am very excited that I will be meeting you in person at the Readers Studio in NYC at the end of April. Is there anything that you would like to share with the Tarot community at this time?
NLB: Although I believe that Tarot readings have great value, I believe that there is much more to Tarot than readings, and my focus with Tarot is more and more away from readings. I have, for a long time, been writing and teaching about using Tarot for meditation, healing, self discovery, and affirmations. These days, however, I am working more towards encouraging people to use Tarot to not only help themselves but to also help the world.
I see Tarot as a powerful tool of focus. It utilizes powerful symbols that speak to us on a very deep level. I am also becoming increasingly practical in my life. When there is a problem or national crisis, I believe in prayer, candle meditations, and other inner work to help. However, I am now working more proactively rather than just reactively. For example, at the time of the Washington, D.C. sniper killing spree, I wrote and widely posted a Tarot exercise which many people found useful. It gave us something to do. In our current time of international stress and strife, I wrote a twenty-two verse healing Tarot song.
BC: Tell us about your healing Tarot song.
NLB: A friend laid a geas on me to create an original work which would help to heal our local spiritual community. I was to perform or exhibit the work publicly. I knew immediately that I had to use Tarot. I quickly decided to write a song, even though I had never written a song before. I was somewhat nervous because I am not a vocalist, and I knew that I would have to sing the song publicly.
I wrote a chorus and twenty-two verses. My feeling is that each of the cards of the Tarot has its own healing energy, and so the twenty-two verses discuss the healing energies of each of the Major Arcana. The song is sung to the tune of "Morning Has Broken." Here's the chorus:
We are circle, here to do healing.
I sang the verses, and everyone joined with me in singing the chorus between verses. It was a very long song! However, it was a wonderful, incredible experience, one filled with love and community. I have the entire song posted on my website at http://www.geocities.com/ninaleeb/tarot/song.htm .
BC: Much of your Tarot work has to do with spirituality, and the spiritual nature of the cards. How is this reflected in your teaching?
NLB: Well, originally, only indirectly. Originally, I taught Tarot as a tool for self discovery, and if my students wanted to take what I taught and to apply it to their spiritual lives, they could. My classes were very supportive of Tarot as a spiritual tool, but I did not teach it specifically as a spiritual tool. However, there was always a spiritual emphasis, a spiritual component, perhaps, in part, because two of my earliest Tarot teaching experiences were at SUUSI (Southeastern Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute). SUUSI is a spiritual camp-like get-together, and when you teach to people who are on a spiritual path, it cannot but influence you as a teacher.
These days, my classes are even more spiritually oriented. In fact, for the last eight months, I've had an ongoing class in my home of students who are specifically interested in using Tarot as a spiritual tool. Their spiritual paths are different: Pagan, Wiccan, Christian, Buddhist, but they all want to use Tarot as a part of their spiritual work. It's been an incredible experience, one of the best teaching experiences that I've ever had. I do not charge a fee for these classes, but I ask that the students bring me gifts in appreciation for what I teach. I've gotten a great deal of verbal reinforcement for this approach and some wonderful gifts: clothing, jewelry, gift certificates, relics from holy sites, books, CDs, crystals, and more. Often the students will share with me gifts that they have made themselves, and they are a very talented bunch of people. I am so pleased with this experiment that I plan to continue this approach with a portion of my students.
BC: I am very interested in the "concrete step" part of your Tarot exercises. How did this come about, and why do you consider it important?
NLB: As a person who has struggled for years with her weight, I am very aware of the difference between knowledge and results. I know a great deal about health issues, nutrition, and exercise. However, I frequently do not act upon what I know. I believe that self discovery is a wonderful thing, but if you only make wonderful discoveries but do not act on them, how has your life changed? How has your life been improved? How have you been helped? How can you help others?
The concrete step starts a person on the road that begins with self discovery. Self discovery is a beginning, not an ending. Self growth, self transformation, and self change are the goals. The concrete step encourages this growth.
BC: Tarot for Self Discovery lends itself well to group settings, as well as individual study. Are you planning on doing seminars based on this book, or on using the book as part of your Tarot teaching curriculum?
NLB: I am always eager and open for travel and speaking opportunities. I am a real ham and love to have an audience. I have used the exercises in Tarot for Self Discovery in some of my classes. Even more, though, I've used some recently-written exercises. I've been writing exercises based on the Tarot cards themselves, so far, just the Major Arcana. In my recent classes, we've spent an hour to an hour and a half discussing a card, and then we'll do an exercise based on that card. This has been very effective.
BC: What do you see for the future of Tarot - what direction do you see it heading in?
NLB: My hope is that Tarot publishing will be more like astrological publishing. I think that Llewellyn's Special Topics in Tarot series is a wonderful start. I would love to have more specialty books, more advanced books, and a wider variety of books. Unfortunately, these books will not get published unless the market seems to be there. So, write to your publishers and tell them the sorts of books that you want.
My hope is also that although Tarot readings will always be popular and an important use of Tarot, that people will become increasingly open to other uses of Tarot.
BC: Nina Lee, you freely share your knowledge in many ways - through your wonderful site, through your presence in on line e-groups, and through personal correspondence. I want to thank you for the enormous effort that you put into placing Robert O'Neill's work on Tarot symbology on your site in a way that can be easily accessed. This was a wonderful gift for the tarot world! (Please note: This work is now on Tarot Passages, the site of editor Diane Wilkes. A note of thanks to Diane for giving this wonderful work a home.)
NLB: Thank you, Bonnie. Bob O'Neill is an amazing man. I live in Tennessee, far away from a lot of Tarot experts. However, once you dig a bit, you find that there are far more knowledgeable people in east Tennessee than you might expect. Bob lives not far from me, and John Opsopaus, author of The Pythagorean Tarot, also lives nearby. In addition, there are several extremely knowledgeable people who are not widely known.
Bob began posting notes to the TarotL email group about some work that he was doing, and I thought, "This has got to be made available to the public!" I offered to edit and code the material for him and put it on the web, and it was great to work with him on that and on his Cathar material which I also later published. When I began renovating my site, I wanted Bob's material to still be available even though it didn't reflect the focus that I wanted for my site. Bob was very understanding, and when I suggested that Diane Wilkes might be interested in hosting it, he was agreeable.
Bob is currently doing some amazing work in Tarot history on the iconography of early Tarot decks. He's going through Renaissance art and writing great articles on the common symbols that are in Renaissance art and in Tarot. You can find these new articles at http://www.tarot.com/about-tarot/library/boneill/ .
BC: Is there anything that you would like to say - any advice that you would have for a student new to Tarot, or a student advancing their Tarot studies?
NLB: I hope that Tarot brings you the joy and the blessings that it has brought me. Let me share the first and last verses from my healing Tarot song as an appropriate ending:
Fool is our guide through detours and problems,
Healing is constant and never-ending.
Bonnie Cehovet
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