I want to make clear
that my use of the word “Toltec” is different from what is a new fashion
nowadays. It is known that some authors and presenters are using that word in a
way that is too liberal, to refer to a variety of themes from esotericism to
“castanedian.” The Toltecs whom I talk about do not come from Atlantis, other
planets or any other tale without proof. The Ancient Toltecs were a specific
indigenous group, historically located between the centuries seven and twelve
in central Mexico, whose influence among many other indigenous peoples of the
past and the present represents the strongest spiritual influence in the Mexican
pre-Hispanic indigenous world. Despite the dark tales that the European
conquerors created around the Toltecs, they represented the highest point of
spiritual, cultural and technological development in ancient Mexico. Their existence
is a historical fact, and the current presence in the Mexican territory of indigenous
people who are their spiritual inheritors can be proven without doubt, as I
have shown in my books and articles.
The surviving Toltecs
is the generic name to refer to those indigenous peoples who have kept alive
the Tradition of the Ancient Toltecs and who I have been related with, as I
have described in “Toltecs of the New Millennium.”
The New Toltecs are
both indigenous and non-indigenous people who are working to keep the Toltec
Tradition alive, not only in the indigenous world, but in its non-indigenous
expression as well. The New Toltecs are committed to following the path of the
Ancient and the surviving Toltecs by creating the appropriate specific
procedures to fit the needs of our modern urban societies. It could be said
that we are opening new paths, following the footprints of the Ancient Toltecs.
The
meaning of the word Nagual
In
a similar way to what has happened with the word “shaman,” the word
“nagual” has also been perverted in recent years, creating a major
confusion. The idea of applying the name “nagual” to a supposedly spiritual
leader without whose participation we wouldn’t be able to achieve freedom and
knowledge, is a modern fashion which was born in California. To clarify this
perversion of the word, we must go back to its original meaning. The word
“nagual” belongs to the Nahuatl language and it is the counterpart of
“tonal.” Nahuatl was the language spoken by the people of
Tehotihuacan, the Toltecs, Aztecs and many other indigenous groups of the past
and present in Mexico and even some regions of Central America. Together, tonal
and nagual are the two sides of the duality always present in the vision of the
world of many indigenous peoples of Mexico.
Ometeotl
(ome means two) is the name of the principle of
duality and Omeyocan is the universe, the place of duality. Now we can
see the absurdity of reducing an entire field of our existence and an entire
side of what we are, to a single person who becomes the new guru and from whom
we need to achieve knowledge and freedom.
To say it plainly,
nagual is not the powerful guru or shaman, but it is half of the reality in
which we live and half of our own nature. To pretend to be a nagual who is
needed by the rest of the people in order to achieve freedom or knowledge, is a
misrepresentation which in the end, works against our chances to achieve the
shamanic experience that belongs to every single human being just because we
were born and because we are all going to die.