Who am I?

I am a scientist, an artist, a tarot reader and a teacher.

What is tarot to me?

Tarot is a tool to gain insight into yourself and your surroundings, so you can make the best decisions to move your life forward. When one steps back and looks at all the forms of divination they all speak to and try to help us navigate our human journey. The tarot is the form I keep returning to in my studies. I have a history in science, the arts, and religions. All these are forms that humanity uses to explain and navigate the human experience. The tarot became the tool to help me and then others to see their uniqueness and use it to navigate their course through life.

In some ways my mission is to be an eudemonist. This word comes from the Greek word “eudaimonia,” meaning “the state of having a good indwelling spirit, a good genius.” When we are at our most present is when we make the best decisions and do our purest action for the betterment of ourselves and the world. I agree with Aristotle who believed –  it is the activities that promote virtue. Or, in a more modern definition, a moral system (ethics) is based upon performance of right action to achieve happiness. We all have  individual paths where we apply our uniqueness to better life. Tarot (and other forms of divination) helps us pilot our course in the universe to accomplish becoming our best selves.

Why the fox?

The name I was born with is Nina Fox.  I use Baldwin as my official name to honor my adopted father.  My Irish side carries the sire name Fox and this is where I think I received my spiritual curiosity.  My grandmother was very religious and at the same time, left milk out for the fairies, tied ribbons and bells in trees and always made her shoes face out of the bed when she slept.  Also, I am fascinated with fox myths from China and Japan.  The kitsune are foxes that serve as messengers of the spirit realm.   (You can read more on my fox tales page)

My Journey so far…

I started off life as an observer and a questioner. My Mom says I was always watching and then had a ton of questions right after. I loved animals and the story of Dr. Doolittle. I thought Dr. Doolittle was the luckiest person on earth because he could talk to animals. At age four I tried to imitate him with my first pet  a cat I called Keke. I used to sit and try to talk to Keke with my mind.  We had some fun conversations.

As I grew, I believed that there were  mysterious parts of the universe that you just needed to learn how to tap into – anything could be possible.  I became fascinated and read anything I could get my hands on that was mysterious (UFOs, ghosts, divination, sightings of strange animals, psychics, etc.). Then I read a book called the Secret Life of Plants and did some experiments from it which confirmed my idea that this woo woo mysterious world could be figured out with science.

In college, I followed the paths of science and spirituality to find out the mysteries of the universe. This lead me to major in Zoology with a minor in Religious Studies. Right along with my biology and chemistry classes, I was learning about a wide variety of religions.

Zoology is the study of animals but in a wider perspective way. Studying zoology honed my skills in seeing the big picture and patterns within that perspective. In my religious studies, Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung became big influences on my ideas around spirituality and the mind. I agree with Campbell and Jung that all religions and humanity have these basic themes that run through them. I found when we take a broader perspective on life we all have the same questions of the mysteries. Though the paths we take to solve them might be different, they also have patterns that resonate the same.

While all of these things were just starting to swirl in my twenty-year-old brain. A synchronicity in my work life led me to cleaning the house of a famous psychic. She gave me my first tarot reading and started teaching me the basics of tarot.   As I learned, I started to look at the divinatory ways of the different religions and found that there were big ideas and patterns there too.

As a side life, I became fascinated with art in all its forms. I started in dance, then music, and now painting and sculpture. Along the way I saw that the arts were other forms of discovery and explanation of the human experience.

My “tarot turning point” happened when some crazy things occurred around the tarot cards and my life. From that time on, I really started to use tarot to navigate my life, and I started to read professionally for others. And, though I continue my studies in a wide variety of intuitive tools, I always feel that tarot resonates best with me. It combines so nicely with my love and fascination with art, science, and spirituality.