tarot4success.com presents an interview with the author of “
Crossing the Bridge to the Future,” the true account of Mark Borax’s 7-year apprenticeship at a mystery school in California’s Santa Cruz mountains. Below, he graciously shares his views and philosophies.
Taylore: In “Crossing the Bridge to the Future,” you write about the importance of creating an authentic existence, one which involves sweeping away old stories to usher in the new. What would be the first step for someone wanting to do this?
Mark Borax: The first step is to set an intention to be willing to catch yourself in your old stories. This intention needs to be a vow that you make to yourself; it has to be strong enough to motivate you toward the deeper dimension of who you are and what you’re doing. That vow in itself, say if you wake up each morning honoring it, will begin to guide you through your own veils and disguises, in order to release the stories that no longer serve, and clue you into the deeper story of the soul you’re enacting.
The difficulty, always, is that it’s very hard to catch ourselves at our own stories because they permeate everything. It’s like reading Howard Zinn’s “People’s History of the US” after being told all your life Columbus was a hero, and then beginning to envision Columbus Day as, well, we might as well have a Hitler Day if we’re gonna have a Columbus Day. Columbus was a sadistic murderer who encouraged his men to slice noses and fingers off Indians with their machetes, as the Indians walked by.
Should we be honoring and celebrating this man?
Well, when you begin to clue into the fact that many of your own stories, your own world views, have been based on lies, distortions, and falsehoods, that’s a situation bound to raise all kinds of hell in your inner nature. It’s much easier to remain in the dark than shine a light into the hidden zone of your own stories. So your initial intention needs to be strong and worthy enough to get you to go the distance. This kind of awakening is never easy, and involves much shadow work.
Taylore: Our inner and outer paths must converge, you write, and this may
involve much upheaval, including potentially leaving jobs, marriages
and home locality. How does someone know they are out of alignment in
the convergence of their inner / outer paths, versus being simply
restless / fickle / uncommitted with what they currently have?
Mark Borax: Excellent question. The answer lies in your core nature. Only in your gut can you know the difference between walking away from a love that you’re too fickle to ground all the way into, and a relationship that time and again, no matter how real you become, no matter how strongly you try to face it, doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s a gut-level feeling, an instinctual difference. On an energetic level, on a psychic level, those situations which juice you up and give you energy when you turn toward them, indicate something that’s truly for you.
Destiny packs a powerful punch.
When you’re hot on its track it ought to quicken you, summon you, magnetize you on a level deeper and more sustainable than a superficial rush. It’s like the difference between quick meaningless sex and soul sex. The difference between a home-cooked meal of organic ingredients grown and raised with love versus a TV dinner. In time, with a few such clear distinctions under your belt, you begin to trust yourself more and more.
Taylore: How does a practice of surrender fit in with willfully moving towards our authentic self?
Mark Borax: The vast majority of people dwell at a level removed from their core nature. We, most of us, live in a mentalized state, a mental picture of what life would be if we actually ever inhabited it. It’s like a massive TV sitcom world with canned laughter. It’s very hard to get this point across to those people most entrenched in the sitcom. Who wants to be told that their life’s a fraud, a sham, a lie?
To move from that trance-induced vicarious existence to something real is a lifelong practice. It doesn’t just happen once and then you’re done. Of the main principles I learned studying with Ellias Lonsdale twenty years ago, I’m still working on the same ones, I’ve just taken it to the 54-year-old version of the work rather than the 34-year-old version. The surrender involved is the surrender into existence. It’s a deep, profound movement with the whole of your being. Have you ever kissed someone who wasn’t at home during the kiss? Have you ever had intercourse without dropping into the experience and engaging the other person? Have you sat through a class or a party while fully being elsewhere?
Each of these experiences holds you back from engaging your authentic nature. Each sends a message to yourself and your world that says, “Nothing really interesting enough is happening here to engage me.” Or, “I’m afraid of what would be raised if I were to really drop in here.” The surrender into the authentic self reverses that field, sending the powerful message to self and other that, “I’m here.” “I am really, truly, here.” “I’m hear and I see you.” This kind of surrender displaces the false self-construct which we send out as our ambassador into a false world. Like a body sinking into a hot bath, it’s a surrender into life, into the juiciness, into the full weight of incarnation.
Taylore: You founded Soul Level Astrology. How does it differ from traditional astrology?
Mark Borax: Traditional astrology views the surface of the twelve signs. Soul Level Astrology has one purpose for the birth chart, and one purpose only: as a conduit to the soul, or core nature of a human being. I am far less interested in the fact you have Mars conjunct Saturn in the 5th House, than I am in peering through the wheel to see who you are on a soul level, why you’re here, what you did in earlier lives that set this one up. Soul Level Astrology cracks the facade of Gemini, Cancer, Leo, and all the other signs and reveals what they’re made of. It’s entirely designed to strip away semblance and illusion and get down to what’s really going on here. It’s not the only way to do it, but it’s a powerful tool for anyone wishing to find out who they are and why they’re here.
Taylore: In your practice as a Soul Level Astrologer, what are the ways that
people’s transformations are most often supported by the world or by themselves?
And foiled by the world or by themselves?
Mark Borax: The foiling is always by ourselves, even when it comes to us via the world. See, there is no one world out there. We each co-create our own world. You’ll find this out talking to several members of the same family. When you look back through the years and describe the house you grew up in, the family you remember, it soon becomes apparent that there wasn’t just one family experience there, but several.
When the world acts up, appearing to block you from transforming, it’s helpful to realize that you’ve just recruited the world (however unconsciously) to obstruct you. Why would you do this? In order to challenge yourself to break through the karma you’ve been dealing with, and activate your true self. The way the world supports this, and the way you support yourself, is when you recognize that every hindrance, challenge, and obstacle is ultimately there to serve your liberation. Only those things that most get to you can serve you on this deeper level. Only when a person takes full responsibility for their life in this way, can you harness events and patterns into a springboard toward your fuller destiny.
Taylore: In “Crossing the Bridge to the Future,” you write that the
most important question you had to ask yourself is “Who am I?” How
would you answer that question today?
Mark Borax: I am a writer who tried for forty years to get a book published and finally did it. I am a lover who searched for decades for the kind of love which could engage the souls of the two lovers, and finally found her. I am the father of two young boys who I love enough to care about the fate of the world. I’m a teacher and counselor, a shaman who’s doing my best to inspire people to grow beyond the stuck state of current humanity, and bring on a greater future.
Taylore: Do you find that astrology and numerology intersect? How might you
say these two modalities are different in what they offer? The same?
Mark Borax: Astrology, similar to numerology, tarot, palmistry, runes and other oracles, have their deep nature and their shallow side. Most practitioners of these arts get caught on the surface. Very few readers go deep enough to master the advanced levels of their art. When a reader reads another person in the normal way, which is very surfacey, the danger is always that they impose their own biases and limits on the person they read. Few people have gone far enough into their own core development to be masterful leaders of others. For example, astrologers have always had a bias against Scorpio and Capricorn. I find this in the eyes of many Scorpios and Capricorns who hear that I’m an astrologer, or come for readings in the last twenty-two years — a look of panic. They’re so used to being the bad guys of the zodiac that they flinch at the idea that I’m going to tell them yet another version of why their life is screwed.
In the case of Scorpio, all the baggage of sex and death that our culture hasn’t dealt with, all the lies, distortions and falsehoods which the reader may harbor, get laid onto the Scorpio, and the reader may as well make the sign of the cross with their fingers to keep the vampire away. In the case of Capricorn, whatever authority issues the reader hasn’t resolved tend to get laid on the Capricorn. So, for any of these oracle arts, there’s always the danger of misreading the person. A reader can only guide someone else to the extent that they’ve gone into the depths of their own life journey.
The similarities between astrology and numerology are that they both deal with numbers. Astrology is strongly based on the 360 degrees of the zodiac. It defines the relationships, or aspects, between planets. It identifies the cycles of timing which deal with planetary movement. It arranges the order of the houses and signs. Numerology also can be traced back to the planets in ancient times, before telescopes, when only seven planets were known by the naked eye. I have great respect for numerologists who use the art to its fullest potential. I have a fondness for all practitioners who strive to transcend their own shortcomings, and wrestle with the important questions enough to be true guides for others.
Taylore: During your first reading with Ellias Lonsdale, you were told that
you would be a role model for a new style of authority, a style
wherein, as a leader, you would help lead people to their own truths,
rather than having them follow your truths. Has there been any
challenges holding onto this type of leadership, when more and more
people see you as an expert and authority in your role as founder of
Soul Level Astrology, and because of your mastery as an astrologer?
Mark Borax: These are really great questions! I think the most recent version of me rising to this kind of leadership comes more from within than without. I think it’s more of a challenge to myself than from others, in that I keep having to remind myself that after all those years operating mostly quietly, outside the system, I’ve become instantly legitimized due to the success of the book.
Nothing much in me has changed all that much, from all the previous years, but having the book succeed has been a huge weight off me, and an enormous release. Since I was a young boy I saw my destiny to write a book, and at 53, that vision finally came true — can you sense the pressure I was under all my life to live up to that, and the relief it’s now given me to fulfill it?
If people out there are taking my words, say, from my book, or my monthly Cosmic Weather Report that I email out to folks, and quoting it on the Internet, in their own lives, or their own writings, I’m very happy about that. I feel a renewed sense of importance that I get to reach that many more people with my work. If some of those folks are twisting my words to serve their own ends, or misreading my intent, that’s the price I have to pay for having achieved my first real measure of popular success. But if you look at all that I write, if you listen to the recordings of my tele-classes or private readings, you notice that the same early counsel of Ellias’s still lives in the intent of every word I say. I fully believe that each of us has a core nature that knows exactly why we’re here and what we’re doing, even if other parts of us forget. In service of that, I use all my visibility and influence to get others to find their own truth. Unless my words resonate with some deeper part of you, don’t take anything I say as gospel. I’m here to provoke, instigate, inspire you to find your own truth.
Taylore: Do you have any future books in the works?
Mark Borax: Today I’m putting the finishing touches on the chapter in my book that will be produced simultaneously as a hardcover and an e-book about the year 2012. It’s being written by a variety of authors including Daniel Pinchbeck and George Noory and should be out soon. My chapter is called, “2012: Springing the Soul of a Stuck Species.” These are brief chapters, sort of a 2012 primer revealing how different writers are envisioning the current world transformation. As far as my own book I’ve been struggling with writing a follow-up to my “2012” book, but it hasn’t gotten off the ground yet. Anybody wishing to keep posted can sign up for my free monthly newsletter, at markborax.com.
Taylore: What question would you love to be asked in an interview?
Mark Borax: You’ve asked some of the best interview questions I’ve ever gotten. Really, I wish all interviewers were as thoughtful, creative and knowledgeable about my work.
Taylore: Thank you! And thank you also for taking the time to be here today to share your thoughtful, creative and knowledgeable answers.
Visit Mark’s website at www.markborax.com
And stay tuned for more interviews coming up!